Qass SMlk 

Book 14/^^ 



Rider's Technical Handbooks. 



No. 5. 



Farm Vermin, 

HELPFUL AND HURTFUL. 

BY 

VARIOUS WRITERS. 



EDITED BY 

JOHN WATSON, F.L.S., 

Editor of Ornithology i7i Relation to Agriculture,'' etc.y etc. 



LONDON : 

WILLIAM RIDER & SON, LIMITED 
14. BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE, E.G. 
NE\Y YORK: 136, LIBERTY STREET. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The periodical plagues or infestations which from time to 
time break out in various parts of the United Kingdom, 
and the damage and loss consequent thereon, show how 
necessary it is that agriculturists should know how to dis- 
criminate between friend and foe. Probably the reason 
why the farmer is not able to do this is that he is lacking 
in knowledge on the subject, this being to some extent 
owing to the w^ant of practical guides. True there is Ciwiis's 
Farm hisects^ and the splendid work on the same subject 
done by that estimable lady, Aliss E. A. Ormerod. Until 
recently, however, there has been but little material in any 
permanent form dealing with the Birds or Animals affect- 
ing the agriculturist. The first of .these has recently 
been treated of,^ and now an endeavour is made to 
show farmers what anim.als to regard as friends and 
what as foes. In the past (if the farmer was in- 
terested at all) there has been too great an inclination to 
rush out with a gun and shoot any or every animal caught 
trespassing in a crop ; and yet, in the great majority of 
cases, this is an altogether unwise proceeding. For instance, 
out of the 360 odd birds recognised as British," there are 
two only which are proved beyond doubt to be positively 
harmful to agriculture. These are the House-Sparrow and 
AVood-Pigeon. In the cases of the numerous suspects (of 
which the Rook may be taken as an example) the balance of 
evidence is in favour of the bird ; whilst in the great 
majority of instances the birds are friends rather than foes. 



* Ornithology in Relation to Agriculture," b}- various writers, edited by John 
Watson, F.L.S. 



INTRODUCTION. 



What has been done for Birds in the volume referred to 
is effected for Animals in this. The writers concerned 
are not only authorities on the particular subjects with 
which they deal, but their knowledge of agriculture makes 
the treatment fuller, and adds to the correctness of their 
judgment. Miscreants, judged from one standpoint only, 
get, as a rule, but scant justice, and it is believed that no 
special pleading will be found in the following pages. 

One objection which may be lodged against this 
little work is that it is not of a sufficiently technical 
character. But this is part of the design. The book is 
intended to be readable as well as helpful, which it might 
not have been (seeing that it is written primarily for 
agriculturists) had, for instance, that little red mouser been 
written down M^istela vulgaris instead of Common Weasel. 

The illustrations which have been appended will, it is 
hoped, tend to make the volume more useful and interesting. 
For the Fox, Rabbit, Red Deer, Squirrel, Hedgehog, and 
Common Bat I have to thank Messrs. Gurney & Jackson ; 
and for permission to use the illustrations of the Short- 
tailed Field Vole, Long-tailed Field Mouse, Stoat, Weasel, 
Kestrel, and Long-eared Owl — the Controller of Her 
Majesty's Stationery Office, these being taken from the 
Report of the Departmental Committee on the plague of 
Field Voles. 

It will be noted that whilst the work treats strictly of 
animals, two of the illustrations are of birds. The reason 
for this Hes in the fact that the best remedy for staying 
incursions like that of the recent Vole Plague in Scotland 
is to be found in birds of prey. 

J. W, 



CONTENTS. 

Chap. Page 

L Voles . . i 

By Sir Herbert IMaxwell, Bart., M.P. 

II. The Weasel Kind ii 

By O. V. Aplin. 

III. Fox AND Badger .23 

By John Cordeaux. 

IV. Rats and ]\Iice 34 

By Cecil Warburton, :\I.A., and John Nisbet, D. Oec. 

V. Hares and Rabbits 41 

By C. B, Whitehead, B.A. 

VI. Enemies to Woodlands and Nurseries, I . 51 

By John Nisbet, D. Oec. 

VIL Enemies to Woodlands and Nurseries, II . 61 
By John Nisbet, D. Oec. 

VIII. Mole and Hedgehog ..... 69 
By O. V. Aplin. 

IX. Bats 81 

By the Editor. 



LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS 



1. John Nisbet, D. Oec. (Author of British Forest Trees," " Studies in 

Forestry/' etc., etc.) 

2. Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart., M.P. (Chairman Departmental Com- 

mission to enquire into Plague of Field Voles, Scotland, 1892) 

3. John Cordeaux (Author of The Birds of the Humber District"). 

4. Cecil Warburton, M.A. (Consulting Zoologfist to the Royal Agricul- 

tural Society of England) 

5. C. B. Whitehead, B.A. (Author of " Profitable Fruit Culture '0 

6. O. V. Aplin (Author of " The Birds of Oxfordshire"). 

7. John Watson, F.L.S. (Editor of " Ornithology in Relation to 

Agriculture ") 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 





PAGE 




PAGE 


Short-tailed Field Vole 


3 


Rabbit 


. 43 


Short-eared Owl . 


5 


Red Deer 


. 53 


Stoat «... 


. 19 


Squirrel 


. 62 


Weasel 


21 


Kestrel or Windover . 


. 67 


Fox .... 


. 24 


Hedgehog 


. 78 


Long- tailed Field Mouse 


. 38 


Common Bat 


. 82 



FARM VERiMIN, HELPFUL AKD HURTFUL. 



CHAPTER 1. 



VOLES. 

For what sum would you undertake to keep a mouse 
for a twelvemonth ? " was a question propounded to me by 
a Scottish sheep-farmer in the summer of 1892, to which I 
replied that I had never made the necessary calculation. 
My interlocutor held about 6,500 acres of hill pasture in 
Eskdale Muir, part of that tract stretching for sixty miles 
between Hawick on the east and Newton Stewart on the 
west, which was devastated by a visitation of voles during 
1891 and 1892. ^' Would you do it for twopence?" he 
asked. No, I certainly would not ; a mouse would surely 
consume more than twopennyworth of food in the course 
of a year. ^'Well," he continued, '^I reckon that I have 
" 3,000,000 mice on my land " (this did not strike me as an 
over-estimate, for we had seen the voles on the ground in 
such numbers as to be like the pattern on a carpet) — 

3,000,000, and they have been there for two years. I put 
down the damage done at twopence a head, and you have 
admitted that this is not a high estimate." 

It took but a simple calculation to make out that 3,000,000 
voles at twopence per head per annum would cost in two 
years ;^SOj00o — a sum far exceeding the purchase-value of 
the land. It was obvious, therefore, that the loss had been 
over-estimated, and an attempt was made to arrive at a just 

B 



2 FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURTFUL. 



idea thereof in another way. The destruction of the 
pasture had told seriously on the stock ; the tenant calcu- 
lated that the lamb crop during the two years had been 
short by 1,200, valued at ;^8oo, and that 200 ewes, valued 
at ;^4oo, had died of exhaustion in excess of the ordinary 
death-rate. In addition to that, there was a deterioration 
of the stock, which he put at 2s. a head on 3,000 sheep for 
the first year and 4s. a head for the second year, amounting 
to £'^00 ; added to which was the cost of hay and corn 
used in feeding, to compensate for the loss of natural 
pasture, ^1,200. In all, my informant estimated in this 
way his losses at ;^35 3oo in two years. Even if this sum 
were diminished by one-half, in order to bring it well 
outside the limits of exaggeration, it is evident that the 
periodical recurrence of the scourge is one well worthy of 
the attention, not only of the Board of Agriculture, but 
also of every class depending for their income on the 
management of pastoral land. 

The Departmental Committee appointed in 1892 conducted 
a searching inquiry into the origin and progress of the 
latest outbreak in Scotland, and also collected records of 
former visitations in this and other lands, and their 
conclusions are embodied in a Parliamentary Blue-book,, 
issued in the spring of 1893. They examined every known 
or proposed means to avert or overcome the plague, and, 
although obliged to acknowledge the inadequacy of every 
expedient which has been tried, when once the voles had 
possession of the ground, they recommended certain pre- 
cautionary measures, which landlords, farmers, and shepherds 
will do well to bear in mind. 

FIELD VOLE {Arvicola agrestis). 

The animal which caused all the trouble in this country 
is the short- tailed field vole {Arvicola ^^^r^^/^i"), intermediate 
in size between the common field mouse and a small rat^ 



4 FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURTFUL, 



and distinguished from the former by its blunt, short face 
and short tail. It is at all times to be found in our pastures, 
but attracts little notice until a favourable season and 
abundant food stimulate its prodigious powers of multipli- 
cation, when it breaks out in swarms and covers the land. 
The field vole does not, like some kindred species (the 
Thessalian vole, for instance, Arvicola Gimtherii)^ burrow 
deeply, but scrapes out shallow runs among the heather and 
grass roots. The first symptom of abnormal increase in the 
voles is usually seen in what hill farmers call the ^'bog" 
land — ix,, strong marshy land, either grazed or mown for 
hay. Here they cut the grass betw^een the root and the 
blade, eating the tender white part just below the ground 
and leaving the blades in withered wasps. Having destroyed 
that, they move to the "bent," *'lea," or dry hill pasture, 
and thence to the heather, or to young plantations if there 
happen to be any in their w^ay. Everywhere their presence 
is marked by the destruction of all eatable growth, the 
impoverishment of the stock, and increased death-rate of 
the sheep dependent on the pasture. When the plague has 
fairly got possession, no means are known by which it can 
be stayed. Burning the grass and heather merely drives 
them upon fresh ground ; it is impossible, moreover, to burn 
all the roughness on a hill farm, as some part must be kept 
to support the stock. Tens and hundreds of thousands ma}^ 
be killed by men and dogs, but the voles m^ultiply faster 
than it is possible to destroy them in this way. Birds of 
prey — buzzards, owls, kestrels, etc. — collect in unusual 
numbers to feast upon them ; and other species, such as 
rooks, become predatory for the nonce, but without any 
apparent effect upon the number of voles. 

A remarkable incident in the late plague in Scotland was 
the presence of great quantities of the Short-eared Owl 
{Ohts Asio)^ a migratory, day-hunting species, com- 
monly called the woodcock owl, because it arrives and 



VOLES, !> 

departs about the same time as the woodcock. Usually it 
is extremely rare for this useful bird to remain and breed in 
these islands, but during 1891 and 1892 it not only arrived in 




SHORT-EARED OWL. 



great numbers, but nested freely, rearing second broods after 
the first had flown. Unhappily for their credit with ganie- 
keepers, these owls outstayed the voles, and now that the 



6 FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURTFUL. 



latter have disappeared it is reported that the owls have 
begun to attack young game. 

Nevertheless, as this is quite an exceptional excess on the 
part of these useful birds, it ought not to be reckoned 
against them. Owls will not remain where there are no 
mice, any more than swallows where there are no flies. 
When the mice are finished owls will support life for a 
time on anything they can catch, but they will soon take 
their departure, and farmers ought to stipulate with their 
landlords that gamekeepers be forbidden to destroy them. 
In doing so they will have science on their side. It is 
only crass ignorance that directs the destruction of all 
birds of prey as vermin, the less pardonable because such 
birds afford evidence of their diet in a peculiar way. Hawks 
and owls swallow feathers, fur, and bones with the flesh, 
and cast them up again in the form of what are called 
^* pelts," or pellets." The Vole Committee inspected the 
farm of Howpasley, near Hawick, which had been visited 
severely by the scourge. A small wood at the back of the 
dwelling-house was resorted to by large numbers of owls, 
and the ground under the trees was literally covered w^ith 
thousands of pellets composed of the fur and bones of the 
voles. Not many years since, tut before the last outbreak 
of voles in Scotland, a German naturalist, Dr. Altumi, w^as 
at the pains of examining the disgorged pellets of the wild 
birds of prey, and the facts revealed by him should at once 
and for ever have removed the doubts as to the usefulness of 
owls. The Tawny Owl {Syrniuni aJuco) is the species that 
bears the worst character for poaching. In two hundred 
and ten pellets of this bird Dr. x\ltum found the remains of 
one stoat, three hundred and seventy-one mice, forty moles, 
eighteen small birds, and many beetles and cockroaches. 
Again, seven hundred and six pelts of the common white or 
barn-owl produced sixteen bats, three rats, two thousand 
five hundred and twenty mice, one mole, and twenty-two 



VOLES, 



7 



small birds. With this record before them farmers will 
be unworthy of their reputation for sagacity if they 
do not insist on their feathered servants being unmolested. 

As long as the plague endured in Scotland, shepherds 
looked in vain for help from the weather — frost, snow, rain, 
drought ; the voles seemed impervious to all change ; they 
hived as merrily under the snow-wreaths as they darted 
about in the midsummer glare. 

To what causes, then, can their disappearence be attri- 
buted ? This can only be answered vaguely — to the cessation 
of the conditions which brought about their excessive multipli- 
cation. From the earliest times, in widely different and dis- 
tant countries, there are records of similar outbreaks of 
small rodents. When the Philistines carried off the Ark of 
the Covenant they were visited by disease, and their fields 
were overrun with swarms of mice (i Samuel v. 6), and the 
people presented expiatory images of the mice that mar 
the land." Holinshed records that in 15 8i there sodainlie 
appeared, in the marshes of Danesey Hundred in Essex, an 
infinite number of mice, which overwhelming the whole 
earth in the said marshes, did sheare and gnaw the grass by 
the rootes, spoyling and tainting the same with their 
venimous teeth, in such sort that the cattell which grazed 
thereon were smitten with a murraine and died thereof ; 
which vermdne by policie of man could not be destroyed, 
till at the last there flocked together such a number of 
owles as all the shire was not able to yield, whereby the 
marshholders were shortly delivered from the vexation 
of the said mice." 

Other chroniclers — Stowe, Childrey, Lilly, Anstice, Lord 
Glenbervie, Sir Walter Elliot, etc. — have described similar 
visitations in various parts of England and Scotland in the 
years 1615, 1648, 1660, 1745, 1813, 1825, 1836, 1864-67, and 
1875-6. Mr. W. H. Hudson gives an interesting description, 
in his Naturalist in La Plata," of the Pampas being over- 



8 FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURTFUL, 



run by a species of field mouse {Hesperoinys)^ and mentions 
tiie usual concomitant of extraordinary numbers of short- 
eared owls which preyed upon them. Lastly, and simultane- 
ously with the latest outbreak in Scotland, the province of 
Thessaly >vas invaded by a plague of voles, and, as it had 
been authoritatively stated that this had been successfully 
combated by Professor Lceffler, I went out to satisfy myself 
as to the results of his specific before recommending its 
adoption in Scotland. The learned Professor having dis- 
covered the bacillus of a disease known as mouse typhus, 
incommunicable to other animals, caused bread, steeped in 
typhus broth, to be placed in the holes of the Thessalian 
voles. Undoubtedly large numbers of mice were destroyed 
in this way, but, inasmuch as each mouse must swallow a 
portion of the virus before it can suffer from the disease, the 
impossibility of applying the remedy to a tract so extensive 
as the infested area in Scotland — measuring, roughly, sixty 
miles in length by twelve to twenty in breadth — is at once 
obvious. The expense of the operation puts it out of practical 
question. No doubt, however, in limited areas, in houses, 
gardens, or even on arable land, this prescription of Professor 
Loeffler's w^ill he found invaluable as a destructive agent 
among rats and mice, and it possesses this advantage over 
all poisons — that it is perfectly innocuous to other forms of 
life. But, as displayed in Thessaly, it must be held ineffica- 
cious for use on an extended scale, for, so far from having rid 
that land of voles, Avhen we visited it in January, 1893, six 
months after the cure had been pronounced com.plete, the 
Mahomedan farmers were sending in despair to Mecca for 
holy water to sprinkle on the fields. 

The Committee determined that the only chance of avert- 
ing a plague of voles, w^ith all its lamentable consequences, 
is to take concerted action when they first begin to appear 
in unusual numbers. The most effective measures,^' they 
say, ''appear to be periodical and timely burning of grass 



VOLES, 



9 



and heather, followed by active pursuit of the vermin by 
men using wooden spades and assisted by dogs. 

Light wooden spades are recommended, because the voles 
dart about so rapidly that it is very difficult to hit them with 
a stick. "It is hardly necessary to point out that the pro- 
prietor of the land should be informed as soon as anyone 
else, because his keepers and other servants might be use- 
fully employed in assisting to prevent what amounts, if un- 
checked, to a common calamity upon all classes connected 
with land. 

"When plantations of limited extent are attacked, pitfalls^ 
wider at the bottom than at the top, and about i8 inches 
deep, should be dug. The voles fall into these and cannot 
escape, and the ground is soon cleared of them in this way." 

The Committee further insisted in the strongest possible 
way on the necessity of discrimination in the destruction of 
what is known to gamekeepers as vermin. The birds that 
prey upon mice do not generally attack game ; buzzards, owls 
of all sorts, kestrels, and the smaller seagulls should be 
strictly preserved, and though it is sometimes necessary to 
kill down sparrow-hawks, this ought on no account to be 
done by the cruel pole-trap, which captures all species 
indiscriminately. 

Weasels are determined enemies to mice of all sorts, and 
the injury they do to game has been greatly exaggerated.''' 
They should certainly be left unmolested on hill farms, 
though it is perhaps hopeless to plead for the more mis- 
chievous stoat. But it must be remembered that exclusive 
reliance cannot be placed on these natural checks. Many 
witnesses before the Committee attributed the prodigious 
multiplication of voles to rigorous game preservation. 

*'The Editor, a considerable portion of whose life has been spent in the fields, has never 
seen a weasel attack adult rabbits or hares, or any of the game birds. Young rabbits 
and leverets are occasionally killed, more rarely the downy young of pheasants and 
partridges. The weasel is an inveterate mouser and ought to be encouraged and presen-ed. 
As much cannot be said of the stoat. — Editor. 



lo FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURTFUL, 

whereby mouse-hunting hawks, owls, and weasels had been 
almost exterminated. That view cannot be maintained when 
the state of matters in other countries is taken into account. 
In Thessaly and the South American prairies nobody thinks 
of shooting hawks and owls, which exist there in un- 
molested numbers ; yet these lands are just as subject to 
periodical swarms of voles and mice as our own. Moreover, 
it has been shown that in former centuries, long before 
gamekeepers had interfered with the natural enemies of the 
mice, Great Britain was subject to visitations not less severe 
than that which has lately caused such grievous damage in 
Scotland. The only precaution possible is watchfulness, and 
combined action on the part of landowners, farmers, 
shepherds, and other persons on the land, so soon as the first 
■symptoms of undue increase in the vermin are detected. 

One favourable result of the recent plague — the only one, 
unless it be that kestrels and owls be henceforth encouraged 
to stay in our land — remains to be noticed. The grass 
w^hich has sprung up on the affected land after the departure 
of the voles is of superior quality, and the pasture has been 
much improved in quality. But it is an expensive remedy ; 
farmers would rightly prefer to keep the management of 
their grass lands in their own discretion rather than trust to 
the empyrics of nature, and no vigilance should be relaxed 
to avert the recurrence of such a visitation. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE WEASEL KIND. 

In treating of a carnivorous and predacious family of 
animals like the present in its relation to agriculture, it will 
be necessary to consider the animal food of its various 
members, and whether that food consists of creatures of 
some value to the agriculturist, or, on the contrary, of 
animals in themselves injurious to his interests. A side 
issue, the effect of the Weasel kind upon ground game, also 
arises, and might confuse the matter, inasmuch as, when the 
farming tenant is not the shooting tenant, ground game 
would be animals injurious to his interest/' but often 
exactly the contrary when he himself has the shooting 
rights. 

Time was when almost all parts of England could boast of 
the possession of five species of this family in fair abundance. 
But at the present day one of them, the Alarten, or Marten 
Cat, is almost extinct ; two others, the Otter and the Pole- 
cat, or Fitchet Weasel, are becoming yearly more rare ; and 
the Stoat, or Ermine Weasel, and the common Weasel are 
now the only two species which may be said to still exist in 
any numbers generally over the kingdom. 

THE OTTER {Ultra vidgaris). 

As the Otter differs in many respects in structure and 
habits from the rest of the family, it will be well to consider 



15 



FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURTFUL, 



it first. To such an extent, indeed, does it differ, that the 
question whether it is flesh or fish has even arisen ! So 
Izaak Walton — 

Piscator. I pray, honest huntsman, let me ask you a 
pleasant question ; do you hunt a beast or a fish ? 

Himtsmaji, Sir, it is not in my power to resolve you ; 
yet I leave it to be resolved by the College of Carthusians^ 
who have made vows never to eat flesh. But I have heard 
the question hath been debated among many great clerks, 
and they seem to differ about it ; yet most agree that her 
tail is fish ; and if her body be fish too, then I may say that 
a fish will walk upon land (for an otter does so), sometimes 
five or six or ten miles in a night.'' 

Pennant, indeed, saw an otter being cooked for dinner in 
the kitchen of a Carthusian Convent. But if we (being free 
from the pressure of perpetual maigre days) are unwilling 
to deceive ourselves as to the zoological aflSnities of 
Ltitra vulgaris^ we must acknowledge that the latter eats 
fish, and a great deal of it too. Lithe and supple 
as an eel, with long, flat body; short, broad, strong 
tail ; and broad, web-toed feet ; the otter is almost 
as much at home in the water as fish are. To have^ 
therefore, otters inhabiting a reach of river, and to 
keep up a large stock of fish therein, is an incompatible 
condition of affairs.''' On the other hand, unless a stream 
is very strictly preserved, and closely fished, an occasional 
otter will do little harm, and even some good — for this 
•reason : the otter having to satisfy his hunger likes a 

* I have lived all my life on the banks of a famous trout-stream in the North, and have 
invariably found trout most abundant near the haunts of the otter. The otter destroys 
fewer fish than is generally supposed ; its food consists mainly of fresh-water crayfish. 
This may appear a bold statement, but it is a fact. It is confirmed by water-bailiffs and 
fish-poachers. Of forty-five dead otters killed in hunting, in two only were there the remains 
of fish food, and this consisted of eels — deadly enemies to trout streams or salmon 
rivers. These forty-five otters were, for the most part, killed before six in the mornings 
and, consequently, when their stomachs were most likely to contain traces of what had 
been taken in their night's fishing. — Editor. 



THE WEASEL KIND. 



13 



big fish, and the latter, though wary of the wiles of the 
Sy-fisher or angler, is probably more easily captured by the 
methods employed by the otter than are smaller and more 
active fish. Now, no worse vermin can exist in a stream, 
most of all a trout stream, than a big fish, and most of all 
a big trout : and these monsters, little likely to fall 
victims to the lures of the casual angler, are very well 
bestowed in the jaws of an otter, This is all we can urge 
in his favour to the fisherman, except, if the latter be an 
all-round sportsman, that legitimate otter-hunting is a very 
charming sport. But if the otter's virtues end upon the 
river-bank, his vices terminate there likewise. For we may 
regard the charges of visiting farmyards and destroying 
poultry, and even young lambs, as (if proved) too exceptional 
to be of serious import. 

Many instances are on record of the otter being tamed 
and taught to fish for the benefit of its master.''' 

Otters may occasionally be trapped by placing a fairly 
strong steel gin in their tracks through a bed of rushes or 
osiers. The trap must be well covered up and attached to 
a small chain. Some trappers have recommended that 
when the trap is set close to the edge of deep water, the 
chain to which it is attached should not be fastened to a 
fixed object, but to a piece of lead of such a weight that the 
otter, when frightened by the snap of the trap, 
instinctively diving under water, can drag it over the edge, 
but is unable to come to the surface again wath it. In this 
case the otter is drowned, and there is less risk of it 
wrenching or biting its foot free from the trap. A long 
line ought, of course, to be tied to the trap, in order to trace 
the whereabouts of the drowned otter. The plan has the 
recommendation of insuring a speedy and easy death to the 
captive. 

* One of my friends had a young otter wliich he led about in a i^ash. At Bassenth\\-aite 
a man and his son trained a pair of otters to fish in the lake. They would return when 
called upon, or follow their master home when the fishing was over. — Editor. 



14 FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURTFUL. 



THE MARTEN {Martes sylvestris). 

Two species of marten, known respectively as the Beech 
and the Pine Marten, were formerly supposed to inhabit this 
country ; but further investigation has shown that the 
second species, while it occurs in continental Europe, is not 
a British animal, and that the white and yellow breasted 
martens found with us are merely varieties of one and the 
same species. Martens, whether white or yellow breasted, 
are now so rare in Great Britain that they can no longer be 
looked upon in the light of vermin, but rather as interesting 
survivors of a fast-departing race. In its habits the marten 
is far more arboreal than the typical weasels — indeed, its 
true home is among the branches of the larger timber trees, 
and, accordingly, we hear of it in the days of its abundance 
frequenting the larger ranges of woodland and the forests in 
preference to more open country. In the branches the 
martens caught birds (doubtless robbing many a nest of 
young), probably squirrels also, but they were always 
said to be very destructive to game, both ground and winged,, 
and to visit farmyards, where they killed poultry of all 
kinds. Yet even this destructive animal did some good 
when it descended to the ground, and, seeking humbler prey, 
destroyed mice, rats, voles, and moles. Those who have 
had an opportunity of observing this animal in life are unani- 
mous in their admiration of its beauty and the sprightliness 
and activity of its movements. The fur of the marten bears 
some resemblance, but is inferior, to that of the sable, and a 
considerable quantity of skins are imported into England 
from the North of Europe. The scent secreted by the glands 
in this animal is much less unpleasant than in some other 
members of the family, and it has on this account been called 
the Sweet Marten, in contradistinction to the polecat, which 
bears the name of foul-mart, or foumart. 



THE WEASEL KIND. 



THE POLECAT [Miistela putorid). 

The Polecat, or Fitchet, although much more numerous 
in this country than the marten, is, with the exception of the 
wilder parts of the kingdom (including some wooded parts 
of midland England where excessive game-preserving is not 
carried on), decidedly a rare animal. In the days when it 
was common it must often have inflicted severe loss upon 
the poultry-keeper, the ravages it committed among fowls 
and ducks, and even among geese and turkeys (young and 
old alike in the former cases), being in no wise restrained by 
the limits of its appetite. For the polecat, finding itself in 
the midst of plenty, killed far more victims than it could eat, 
contenting itself for the time being with eating only the 
brains and part of the blood of the slain ; and it is even said 
to have gratified its love of kilHng by destroying every head 
of poultry in the roost to which it had obtained an entry." 
A more unwelcome denizen in a game preserve it is difficult 
to imagine, pheasants and partridges, hares and rabbits, alike 

* Miss E. A, Ormerod contributes the following ; — " With regard to the weasel kind, in 
their forms of stoat, weasel, and polecat, I send you a reminiscence of a massacre of poultry 
as an example of the destructive habits which it appears to suit the polecat's view to carry 
out, quite irrespective of its personal need of provisions. The locality was the Sedbury 
Park Estate, the Gloucestershire property of my late father, Geo. Ormerod, D.C.L, It lay 
along the Wye (opposite Chepstovs-) and the Severn, with a frontage of about a mile along 
each river. In the woods and wooded cliffs there was shelter for wild life, both 
bird and beast, vdiich to those who, like myself, cared to watch what was going 
forward, brought many an observation of rare appearances. But with regard to the 
polecats and weasels — the great quantity of rabbits, which almost swarmed in the clififs 
afforded a provision that made them a pest to be constantly needing consideration ; [and 
the polecat — though only so occasionally seen that when one was destroyed the body was 
almost always brought to the house as a trophy for inspection of the beautiful fur, yet from 
time to time appeared. On one occasion the following disaster swept off almost all my 
sister's ducks. These and the common foAvls were kept in fairly large poultry-houses, about 
twenty feet by ten, walled at back and one end, the rest believed to be made vermin-proof vrith 
woodwork and wires ; and on the floor of this, with due accommodation, or in boxes at 
ground level, the ducks passed the night, with the fowls on perches above. One morning, 
however, when the dairymaid and yardman went to open the poultry-house door, instead 
of the state of affairs they expected, the floor was strewn with the corpses of at least fourteen 
duck?. So amazed were the two at the sight that i: never occurred to them that the cause 
of evil was within. \Vhilst the verj- inefficient natural history committee stood at the open 
door, holding up their hands and ejaculating, the polecat, seeing no difficulty in escaping 
simply ran out through the door." — Editor. 



i6 FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURTFUL, 



falling victims to its rapacity. Bewick relates the case of a 
polecat being observed to frequent the banks of a river to 
some purpose, for eleven eels were found in its retreat. And 
another writer mentions a nest containing five young, close 
to which were stored no less than forty large frogs and 
two toads, these being alive, but disabled from moving away, 
each one being bitten through the brain. But as long as 
the polecat keeps away from the temptations of the farm- 
yard, it will naturally, in those districts which are not highly 
stocked with game, do good by destroying vermin to a degree 
proportionate to the mischief to which its bloodthirsty dis- 
position incites it in more luxurious quarters. I have myself 
seen a polecat hunting along the brookside where the too- 
numerous rats (I mean rats, not water-voles) were the 
largest — if not the only — game it would find ; and the rats 
in the hedgerows after harvest would afford the polecat the 
best chance of obtaining a dinner in those districts (numerous 
enough) where hares are scarce, pheasants and rabbits still 
more so, and partridges far from abundant. The polecat is 
proverbial for its strong scent, but its fur is worn freely 
under the name of fitch." Similarly, the fur of the despised 
stoat in its winter dress is worn as ^'ermine"; and one of our 
most expensive furs is procured from an animal (the skunk) 
whose odour is one of the most disgusting, as it is certainly 
the most pungent animal smell, the whole world produces. 
Those who know from experience the strength of this per- 
fume, and the distance at which it is perceptible, must be 
excused a little exaggeration of imagination if they breathe 
a sigh of thankfulness that the whole broad Atlantic stretches 
between England and the home of this odoriferous little 
beast. 

STOAT OR ERMINE {Mustela errnmed). 

Hitherto I have had to speak of the members of the 
weasel family, treated of in this chapter as very destructive 



THE WEASEL KIND, 



17 



vermin, doing some good certainly, but not nearly sufficient 
to counteract the harm. We now come to an animal which 
may fairly be said to do quite as much good as harm. But 
it is hardly necessary to say that in those cases of excessive 
game-preserving, when on a given extent of ground a far 
larger head of game is m.aintained than nature ever intended 
it to maintain, man, having already violently upset the 
balance of nature, is obliged to go a little farther, and not 
only remove every stoat from the temptations arising from a 
residence among semi-tame pheasants andswarmiing ground- 
game, but also trap the rats with which the stoats would 
have contented themselves to a large extent under ordinary 
conditions of life. It is not to be denied that the stoat is a 
terrible enemy to rabbits, and will and does kill not only 
those, but hares also ; that probably now and again it 
succeeds in surprising an old pheasant or partridge (to say 
nothing of young ones) or that it is an occasional and 
most unwelcome visitor to henroost and dovecot. At the 
same time its favourite prey is the rat, and in pursuit of this 
it hunts the hedgebanks in summer and comes into the 
stackyards in winter. The stoat may often be seen 
hunting along the stream-banks in pursuit of the water- 
vole and of the common brown rat, large numbers of 
which latter animal take to the stream-banks during summer, 
and are confused by unobservant people with the compara- 
tively harmless water-vole. Many mice are also killed by 
the stoat, which is figured on page 19. In the Blue-book 
embodying the Report of the Royal Commission upon the 
Field Vole plague, the stoat is described as among the 
deadliest and most persevering enemies of small rodents." 
Like some of its congeners, the stoat hunts by nose, follow- 
ing the scent of rats or rabbits with the greatest pertinacity. 
It often takes to the v/ater, swimming with ease and 
rapidity, and is equally well capable of climomg trees. 

c 



1 8 FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURTFUL, 

THE WEASEL {Mtistela vulgaris). 

It only remains now to speak of the little red weasel, and 
I shall claim for it that while very beneficial as a mouser 
and a destroyer of other small rodents, it is nearly (but not 
quite) harmless to the poultry-keeper and game-preserver. 
To begin with, the weasel is so small that it would have 
some difficulty (savage and active as it is) in mastering full- 
grown game or poultry, and (apart from very exceptional 
cases) its misdeeds are probably confined to the occasional 
slaughter of a young rabbit, leveret^ or chick. Casual 
offences of this kind might well be overlooked in view of 
services rendered, and, except in the case of incorrigible 
offenders (such as a weasel which has found its way into a 
dovecot, or to breeding-coops, or is raising a family close 
to rabbit-burrows), protection might be afforded to weasels 
if only on account of the large numbers of mice they destroy. 
Bell gives the total length of the male weasel at 
I of inches, which I think is above the average^ 
for I remember being greatly struck with the size of one 
which proved to measure only a quarter of an inch more. 
A male weasel, therefore, can thread the mole's runs easily, 
and the female, which is a wonderfully small animal, mea- 
suring only 8 or 9 inches total length, can even follow 
the field mice underground, and is probably by far the most 
deadly enemy the small rodents have. In those wheat- 
ricks, too, which are infested with mice and tunnelled in all 
directions by their runs, weasels often do a great deal of 
good — indeed, when a weasel takes up its quarters in a 
rick, it generally soon effects a clearance of the murine 
vermin. Rats are said to desert a sinking ship, and neither 
they nor mice are likely to find a wheat-rick a very con- 
venient habitation when once a stoat or a weasel has 
adopted it as part of its beat. 

Many people ao not know clearly what the difference is 



THE WEASEL KIND, 



20 FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURTFUL. 



between the stoat and the weasel. The stoat is consider- 
ably the larger of the two, is brown above, and has a rather 
long, somewhat bushy tail, the tip of which always remains 
black ; the weasel is of a paler reddish brown above, with a 
tail uniform in colour with the back, and of uniform thick- 
ness. 

As the rat forms a favourite food of the stoat, so even to 
a greater degree do various kinds of mice that of the weasel ; 
the latter also destroys many moles, rats, and water-voles, 
and, although not on all occasions guiltless of the blood of 
young game and poultry, is even less harmful in these 
respects than its congener the stoat, the burden of whose 
sins it often has to bear. The late Professor Bell relates 
that, having concealed himself on one occasion close to a 
weasel's nest containing young, he saw the parent bring, in 
a little more than an hour, five mice for her young. He 
caused the female to drop the fifth, which he picked up, 
and found that it was a specimen of the field vole {Arvicola 
agrestis)^ commonly known as the short-tailed field mouse or 
grass mouse ; Professor Bell had no doubt, from the general 
resemblance which the other four bore to this one, that 
they were all of this species. Now the significance of this 
fact will at once be apparent when we reflect that this same 
Arvicola agrestis is the little animal the depredations and 
overwhelming abundance of which in Scotland were the 
occasion, in 1892, of the appointment of a Departmiental 
Committee to inquire into and report upon the circum- 
stances attending the existing plague of voles in some of the 
southern counties of Scotland, and upon preventive and 
remedial measures. The minutes of evidence and appen- 
dices, emxbodied in a Blue-book, extending to 98 pages, 
exclusive of the Report of the Committee, presented to both 
Houses of Parliament, together with a pamphlet on the 
subject issued by the Board of Agriculture, are now before 
me. The information contained therein is of the greatest 



THE IV EASEL KIND. 



21 



moment to all who are interested in the question oi the 
comparative good and harm eftected by the animals and 
birds commonly kno\Yn as vermin. With respect to the 




causes of the outbreak, the Committee report that ^'the 
increase in the number of voles to the dimensions of a 
plague was attributed by all witnesses to one of two reasons, 
or to a combination of both.'' The first is the character of 



22 



FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURFFUL. 



the seasons. '^The second cause assigned by witnesses is the 
destruction of hawks, buzzards, owls, stoats, and weasels by 
persons interested in the preservation of game.'' Major 
Craigie had previously stated to your Board that a prepon- 
derance of opinion amongst farmers is reported, tracing the 
cause of the present outbreak to the scarcity of owls, kestrels, 
hawks, weasels, and other vermin. Of the prevalence of 
this opinion your Committee were made fully aware, nearly 
every witness who was examined giving it as his belief that 
the outbreak w^as due to the destruction of the * natural 
enemies ' of the voles." The Committee further reported 
that they had "no hesitation in recommending that weasels, 
which are persistent mouse-hunters and do little damage to 
game, should not be molested, at least on moorlands and 
hill pastures, where they can do little harm and much 
good.'' 

In case of an undue abundance of the smaller members of 
the weasel family, trapping may have to be resorted to. 
Some kind of fall or tunnel trap for use on speculation '' 
in likely places ; and the steel gin, either baited or set 
where the animal is likely to pass, in the case of the desired 
destruction of individuals known to frequent any given 
place, are the remedies." The bottom of a small dry 
ditch is a favourite road" with stoats and weasels in pass- 
ing from place to place, and among buildings they always 
like to travel along just at the foot of the walls or under any- 
thing that will give them temporary shelter from obser- 
vation. I have more than once seen stoats running along 
the top of a low dry stone wall, and a flat stone or old slab 
set up in a slanting position against the wall may tempt 
one coming that way to pass between them. Success in 
trapping depends largely on finding out these likely spots. 



CHAPTER III. 



EOX AI^D EADG-ER. 

THE FOX ( Canis indpcs). 

Notorious in all ages for his cunning and trickery, the 
Fox is now the only wild representative of the Camdce left 
in Great Britain. Notwithstanding his many faults, he 
was always tolerated and treated with favour by the 
northern races, who, believing all nature to be alive, 
attributed to beasts and birds the gift of human speech and 
the actions of men and women, with super-added powers of 
transformation and change of shape. The most popular 
tales and folk-lore in all countries and ages are connected 
with the craft and sagacity of the fox and his power of 
outwitting beast, bird, and even man himself ; and many 
an Aryan mother of that younger world has hushed her 
child to rest with much the samiO rhymes and stories of sly 
Reinke as have done good service in the modern nursery. 
The fox also held a subordinate place in the Norse mytho- 
logy, being sacred to the mighty Thor, whose red, flaming 
beard was of the same typical colour. 

There are several remarkable varieties of Canis vulpes 
in Great Britain, the largest and strongest being the 
Highland fox, in size and strength more like a wolf, when 
compared v\^ith his brother of the Lowlands— his fur 
stronger and of a greyer tint, and more white at the tip of 
his brush ; the skull also is larger and stronger and its 
breadth greater, and armed with more formidable canines. 



24 



FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURTFUL, 



In sandy soils foxes will, unaided, excavate considerable 
burrows, or earths f in strong soil they will often take 
possession of disused rabbit-burrows, which they enlarge^ 
or badger earths, and it is a well-ascertained fact that these 
two w^ill live together in the same vicinity and on the most 
amicable terms. The young are almost always brought 
forth in these earths, although occasionally a vixen has been 
known to select a straws-stack or a hollow tree. Once when 
riding down the open furrows in a deep-ploughed fallow 
we found four little blind cubs in the space between two 




THE FOX. 



up-turned furrows ; these lay quite exposed in a shallow 
nest of dried grass. On going to the place the next day we 
found them gone, the keen-eyed vixen in some manner 
having become aware of their discovery. 

There can be no disguising the fact that, however great a 
favourite Reynard is in the hunting shires of England, he 
is looked upon as an unmitigated pest and nuisance in the 
mountain districts of northern Britain, where no hound or 



FOX AND BADGER, 



25 



horseman ever comes. Man in those regions has no use for 
him, and will not tolerate his too-frequent depredations^ 
which are resented in proportion to his utter uselessness. 
In Scotland generally he is " King of the vermin/'' and 
nothing escapes him — weakly sheep, lambs, ptarmigan, 
grouse, hares, rabbits, game, wild fowl generally, and 
young roe ; such smaller deer, too, as rats, mice, and moles. 
He robs the nests of the wild bee for the honey of which he 
is inordinately fond — a bait which has often lured him to 
destruction. 

In England, where food is not so readily procurable 
as in North Britain, foxes feed largely on leverets and 
rabbits. They are deadly foes to brooding pheasants 
and partridges, both slaying the sitting bird and devour- 
ing her eggs. Only this year (1S94) we have learnt of the 
fearful havoc and mischief done in one night by a fox 
which had succeeded in evading the sleepy watcher, among 
the young coop-reared pheasants of a neighbouring preserve, 
scores of young birds having been destroyed out of what 
appeared to have been pure cussedness/' as most had been 
left strewn about the ground. When pressed by hunger the 
fox will not disdain frogs, snails, and worms, and even 
the acrid toad, and we have sometimes found the droppings 
full of the wing-cases of beetles. An old farmer who began 
life as a keeper, and had lived much of his time near a fox- 
covert, recently told us that foxes are very fond, in the 
spring, of the droppings of young lambs, as long as they are 
sucking the ewes, and will resort constantly to the fields 
where these can be got. 

On this side the Border the fox is pre-eminently 
distinguished as the worst enemy of the poultry yard, and. 
presuming on long immunity, so bold does he become 
during the season his family are dependent on him, that he 
will carry off the unwary duck or hen in broad daylight 
and in the most public manner, regardless of shouts and 



26 



FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURTFUL. 



yells and barking collies he has been known to clear a 
whole parish of out-sitting ducks and hens. Near the 
coast he is particularly partial to decayed or rotten fish, 
•constantly visiting the locality, night by night, as long as 
this savoury viand is procurable ; nor will he disdain to 
take a light and salutary repast from the dangling scare- 
crow gibbeted above newly-sown or ripening corn. Perhaps 
one of the worst charges we have heard brought against him 
is that of cannibalism — a fact w^e have had the opportunity 
of verifying. In a grass field in the parish in which we lived 
there was a big stack of thorns, purposely contrived as a 
retreat and refuge for foxes. Here two vixens laid up, and 
in summer evenings we have watched the pretty gambols of 
the cubs. One day the tenant brought word that the foxes 
had been quarrelling, that the vixen had killed a cub, and 
that subsequently the rest had dined off it, of all wliich sad 
scene he had been an eye-witness. On examining the place 
we found it was a too-true tale, and the only relic left was 
the fresh skin of the unlucky cub, neatly turned inside out, 
like a glove, and picked clean of every particle of flesh, a 
certain indication that a fox — and a fox only — was the 
author of the deed. 

Hedgehogs, too, form part of his diet ; the skin, as in the 
former case, being invariably turned inside out. When 
flocks are folded on turnips in winter, foxes will sometimes 
take advantage of the helpless condition of an overcast 
sheep, and inflict terrible mutilation and death. Such out- 
rages, however, we consider quite exceptional, and induced 
hy scarcity of natural food, or it is not improbably the 
work of some old rascal w^ho, like the flesh-eating parrot of 
New Zealand, has developed a taste for fresh mutton or 
kidney fat. 

* I once saw a striking instance of this. A sheep shearing was proceeding in the 
fold of a mountain farm, when a vixen fox suddenly sprang over the wall and im- 
mediately made off with a gamecock, It was broad daylight, there were men and 
dogs about, and the fold was in a general bustle.— Editor. 



FOX AND BADGER. 



27 



We cannot but admit that these charges amount to a 
serious indictment, and ^ve will now hear what can be urged 
on the other hand in the defence. First, then, we plead 
that there is no anim^al, tame or wild, which is such a per- 
sistent and clever rat-catcher, Mice, also, both the common, 
the long-tailed, and the destructive short-tailed field vole, 
he will catch and eat in large numbers. If you doubt his liking 
for these, leave exposed the dead rats and mice when a rick is 
threshed, and you will find that where there are foxes all 
will probably have disappeared in a night or two, and that 
the work is done by these will be shown by the neatly 
reversed skins of the larger rodent. It is a somewhat sug- 
gestive fact that in the recent plague of rats which for two 
years levied so heavy a toll on the agricultural produce 
in Lincolnshire, the injury was confi.ned to the fens and 
those districts in w^hich foxes are not preserved, or where 
there is no hunting. A brace of foxes will keep the rats in 
their vicinity well within bounds. His depredations amongst 
game and poultry might be effectually prevented if keepers 
w^ould supply the vixen during the time the cubs are with 
her with a few rabbits and rooks left conveniently near her 
earth. So likewise with poultry. When we want to keep 
strawberries and fruit from blackbirds and thrushes we cover 
them up with nets. And if landlords and tenants would 
supply suitable shelter and accommodation for poultry, the 
loss from foxes and other vermin, including the two-legged 
sort, would be proportionately small. In these days of 
depressed agriculture poultry-rearing has become an im- 
portant item in the balance-sheet. We can scarcely expect 
a fox^ however kno^ving, to discriminate between wild and 
tamxC birds, and we are sorry to say that the conditions of 
keeping poultry in our agricultural districts are usually such 
as offer him every inducement to help himself. In the vast 
majority of cases there is no sort of poultry-house on the 
farm, the hens nesting anywhere, all over the place, and at 



28 



FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURTFUL. 



night roosting on firs and evergreens, the cart hovels, im- 
plement sheds, and other buildings, where, in due course, 
wood and iron alike become coated and corroded with 
droppings. 

When a hen-house exists, it is usually some ramshackle 
lean-to against the side of a larger building, a monument of 
the ingenuity of the tenant, and pervious to wind and rain 
on every side, or, when more substantially constructed,, 
having no proper ventilation. The inside swarms with 
creeping and jumping vermin; woodwork and floor alike are 
coated thickly with hot and acrid guano, feathers, and rotten 
straw ; the smell is overpowering ; — and yet in poisonous 
dens like these we expect our poultry to thrive and fowl- 
rearing to be remunerative. Let owners and occupiers pro- 
vide suitable and roomy yards and shelters where the poultry 
can be locked in at night, and we shall hear little more of 
the depredations of the foxes. 

Indirectly the preservation of foxes is of immense benefit 
to the agricultural classes. If no foxes there could be no 
hunting, and if no hunting then no necessity for horses bred 
for that purpose. Let those who are eager to destroy our 
great national sport visit any of the great agricultural shows 
and inspect the classes for blood sires, brood mares, and 
hunters, and they will then better realise the enormous 
amount of money which changes hands, all which goes, in 
one way or other, to benefit agriculture. Again, let fhem 
calculate the amount of hard cash sown broadcast in a 
hunting county in wages, purchase of hay, straw, corn, rents 
and general expenditure, to say nothing of saddlers, tailors^ 
and veterinary surgeons, hunt balls and hunt suppers, and 
such-like entertainments. There is no doubt that if it 
had not been for this lavish expenditure, the sole foundation 
and beginning of which is our little friend Reynard, the 
distress in many agricultural districts would in late years^ 
have been greatly accentuated. There is also a social 



FOX AND BADGER. 



29 



and moral side of the question which must not ahogether 
he passed over in silence. ''Hunting," as the immortal 
Jorrocks says, '4s the sport of kings, the image of war 
without its guilt and only twenty-five per cent, of its 
danger.'^ The Duke of Wellington always preferred fox- 
hunters for his aides-de-camp, because he knew they 
would be well mounted, could ride straight to a point, 
and possessed coolness, judgment, and rapid decision. Any 
man who can ride to hounds has the making of a good 
cavalry officer, and most assuredly the day will come when 
England will once more be proud of her hard-riding sons, 
her cavaliers of the hunting-field, men who are as ready to 
charge the enemies' ranks as to ride at a stiff bullfinch. 

To sum up, then, for and against. In districts where there 
is no fox-hunting, like northern Britain, it is right and 
proper that the fox should be kept in check by other means 
and not allowed to increase unduly. In much of England, 
however, his preservation, as we have shown, is undoubtedly 
a substantial gain and advantage to the country. The 
propensity to evil courses in our vulpine friend may 
be much checked or altogether prevented by care and 
precaution. 

May fox-hunting flourish amongst us ! It is a healthy 
and life-giving exercise and the grandest sport in the world, 
and can be enjoyed, in degree, by all states and conditions of 
men, whether these be the "hupper crust" of the hunt, 
as Mr. Jorrocks calls them, or the chimney-sweep on his 
jackass. 

We should perhaps lay ourselves open to the charge of 
unfairness if we failed to notice the occasional damage done 
by fox-hunters in galloping across root crops and breaking 
fences. We are sorry to say the agricultural fences of 
England in many districts are now in a very different state 
to the trim, neatly-cut hedges we can recollect twenty-five 
years ago ; now full of gaps and repaired in the most casual 
way with dead thorns, or a few yards of spiked wire, taken 



30 FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURFFUL. 



down again before hunting commences. Having lived in a 
hunting district much of our Hfe, and within easy walk 
of a town, we have no hesitation in saying that the damage 
done by hounds occasionally crossing a parish is as nothing 
compared with the injury inflicted to live stock, crops, and 
fences by poachers, bird-nesters, plover-egg seekers, wool 
and watercress gatherers, mushroom seekers, herb and wild- 
flower root collectors, gleaners, blackberry gatherers and 
nutters, and all that class of nondescript town slink-abouts 
who will do anything rather than an honest day's work. 

THE BADGER {.Veles taxus). 
The badger is the only representative of the Plantigrades 
(that is, animals walking on the soles of their feet) which 
is now found in Great Britain. He is not a ver}- distant 
relative of the bears [Ursidce)^ and exhibits also close 
zoological affinities to the weasel tribe [MusteJidce), He 
is a gentleman of very ancient descent, and was co-existent 
in these regions with the mammoth, elk, and beaver, and 
other animals long since extinct, yet still survives all the 
changes and vicissitudes of time and place in spite of his 
most unjust and cruel persecutions by man. That he has 
succeeded in holding his own is due to his retiring habits, 
seldom being seen outside his burrow in the daytime. In 
fact, we are disposed to think that he is not so rare as is 
generally supposed, and we have sometimes found his un- 
mistakable tracks in places where we little expected to 
see them — a long foot with five toes parallel to each other, 
and the sharp nail-prints an inch or two in advance. 
Compared with the fox, the badger is a dull, lazy beast, 
and invariably very fat. His habits are wholly nocturnal, 
issuing out of his burrow after dusk and returning before 
dawn. Keepers who are out very early have seen them 
returning to their retreats, following each other in direct 
line. The earth of a badger is often a big affair, a regular 
fortress, four to five feet deep, and with many twists and 



FOX AND BADGER. 



31 



ramifications. At the end it rises about a foot to secure 
drainagG, and is terminated by a chamber Hned with dead 
grasses and ferns. We have known quite a barrow-load 
taken from one of these chambers. The whole of the 
internal arrangements are kept beautifully clean and free 
from pollution. It is in this chief room, or one similar, that 
the young are born ; these are blind at first and not unlike 
little bears, greyish white, and the facial markings not very 
distinct. The young accompany the females during the 
summer. 

Naturalists are yet much divided in opinion as to the 
period of gestation in the badger, some making it a year^ or 
even fifteen months, and others eleven or twelve weeks. 
The young are born early in spring ; we have seen a female 
killed on January 20th, which was then suckling. There is 
no prettier sight than a litter of young badgers with their 
mother, but to be able to watch their habits it is necessary 
to take your stand on a midsummer night or in bright 
moonlight in some wood frequented by them, keeping 
concealed near an open space or where the chief rides cross. 
If fortunate, we shall see them emerge from the underwood, 
waddling to and fro in eager search for worms, grubs, and 
snails, and in the uncertain light looking not unlike a litter 
of little grey pigs on the stray, and snuffling and grunting 
much in the same manner. In his food the badger may be 
said to be omnivorous — earthnuts, roots, bulbs of wild 
hyacinths, beech-mast, all sorts of fruit, garden produce 
(we know of one shot with grass in his mouth), frogs, worms, 
and insects. They are exceedingly fond of the garden snail, 
also eggs of all sorts, wounded game, and hedgehogs. He 
will scratch out a nest of young rabbits, and no doubt eat 
very young hares if he comes across them in his rambles. 
Regarding the two latter, to judge by the agitation which 
preceded the passing of the Ground Game Act, he and the 
fox also are conferring a benefit on the farmer by keeping 



32 FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURTFUL. 



down the devourers of his crops. One curious result of the 
Act is that, whereas in many districts the hare has become 
virtually extinct, the rabbit has greatly increased. The 
former being a wandering animal is naturally snapped up by 
the man on whose land it happens to be, lest it should get 
into his neighbour's pie-dish instead of his own. The 
rabbit, on the other hand, being more stay-at-home and 
keeping to one place, has, since it became the property of 
the occupier, been carefully fostered and looked after and 
considered a most valuable perquisite — a curious instance of 
how circumstances alter cases.* 

One of the favourite repasts of the badger is the nest of 
the wasp, of which he destroys great numbers. This he 
will grub out from any depth, not for the honey, for the wasps 
do not lay it up, but for the larvae — a most delicious morsel 
for him. 

Having lived for some time in a great fruit-growing district 
we can testify to the enormous damage done by wasps to 
fruit, even to the extent of quite one-half the produce, and 
we have thought a few badgers w^ould have been of great 
help in keeping these pests under. 

From the middle of November to the middle of March 
badgers hibernate and keep to their holes, filling up the 
entrance to exclude the cold. They are, however, frequently 
tempted from their retreat by mild weather. The poor 
retiring "brock" is the most innocuous and peaceable of 
animals in his daily life, and deserves protection from man, 
committing no depredations on his poultry and flocks. It 
is difficult to understand that there are men so brutal as to 
deliberately promote the tortures of a quiet, harmless, and 
most inoffensive animal, in the cowardly amusement known 
as badger-baiting. Man, as a rule, deals most cruelly with the 
wild creatures amongst which he has lived so long — the birds 

* I have observed the same fact — it is very general. — Editor, 



FOX AND BADGER. 



33 



and beasts — the mystery of whose Hves he is not able to 
fathom. What does he yet know about these ancient 
neighbours of his — their means of communication amongst 
themselves, their powers of appreciation, their attachment 
to home and young, their capabilities of enjoying life, their 
loves and fears, and of that mysterious power which, for vv^ant 
of a better word, we call instinct ? To quote from a Saturday 
Reviewer : All sylvan and rural England is being * dis- 
peopled ' of her ' dreams,' of her shy population in fur, fin, 
and feather." Surely, then, when so little remains of the 
ancient fauna of England, it is right to spare what is left, 
and strive rather to preserve, increase, and restore these our 
most curious and interesting neighbours, thus making a 
late and tardy reparation for much wrong done in the past 
in the hard old times which are gone past recall. 



D 



CHAPTER I\ 



RATS AND MICE. 

Many of the smaller quadrupeds which affect the economy 
of the farm belong to the great group of rodents, or gnawing 
animals, among which the Miiridce^ or rat tribe, hold a 
prominent place. 

The Murince^ or specially rat-like members of the MiLvidce^ 
aie very typically represented in this country by the voles 
and various species of rats and mice. 

For the voles, the Liliputians of the beaver tribe, the 
honour of a separate chapter has been reserved. It will suffice 
for our purpose to say that, though often confounded with 
the true rats and mice, they can generally be distinguished 
by their blunt noses, short ears, and hairy tails. 

THE BROWN RAT {Mils decnmanus). 

Facile princeps among farmyard pests is the brown, or 
Norway rat. 

Just as, more than 1,500 years ago, hordes of Huns 
swarmed into Europe from the plains of Tartary, striking 
terror into the heart of Teuton and Roman, so, early in last 
century, did huge armies of the brown rat migrate from 
their home in Central Asia, driving before them and well- 
nigh exterminating their predecessor the black rat, Mils 
rathis^ which no longer flourishes except in countries like 
South America, to which its more powerful congener has 
not yet penetrated. 

It is very prolific, bearing eight or ten young several 



RATS AND MICE, 



35 



times a year, and its depredations upon poultry, pigeons, 
grain, roots, and the bark of trees witness to its omnivorous 
appetite. 

Rats have been known to steal eggs, and to carry them off 
without breaking them ; they are cannibals, and eat each 
other on occasion ; and they will not hesitate to attack 
animals, such as rabbits, which are much larger than them- 
selves. 

In waging war against these pests our weapons are of two 
kinds — poison and traps. The former is perhaps the more 
humane, but within doors it is apt to lead to unpleasant 
consequences quite apart from its possible consumption by 
dogs and cats. If a poisoned rat should die beneath the 
flooring, recourse should be had to an expedient which is 
probably familiar to the reader. Not blood-hounds, but 
bluebottles, are placed upon the trail, for, if imprisoned in the 
room, they will settle in the neighbourhood of the offensive 
body, and indicate its precise v/hereabouts. 

In a highly useful article in the Journal of the Royal 
Agricultural Society on ^'Vermin of the Farm," Mr.Harting 
quotes from Waterton a recipe which is, perhaps, as 
efficacious as any. Two pounds of coarse brown sugar and 
one dessert-spoonful of arsenic are thoroughly mixed with 
as much oatmeal as would fill an ordinary washhand basin. 
The dose is a tablespoonful, which should be placed from 
time to time in the runs frequented by the rats. 

Mr. Harting adds the useful suggestion that shallow 
vessels of water should be placed near the poison in order 
that the rats may attempt to quench their thirst induced by 
the arsenic, and thus die on the spot instead of in their 
holes. Chickens killed and partially eaten by rats should 
be poisoned in anticipation of their return. 

If traps be preferred to poison, they should not be too large, 
and, if properly placed, will often be more efficacious unbaited 
than baited. The disposition both of poison and traps is of 



36 FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURFFUL. 



the highest importance. The favourite runs should first be 
ascertained, and food should be distributed in them for some 
nights before the capture is attempted. 

A well-known and simple live trap which has on occasion 
proved immensely successful consists of a barrel containing 
about six inches of water, in the middle of which a brick is 
placed on end. The top is covered with stout paper, which 
is baited for several nights in succession. Across is then 
cut in the middle of the paper, and the rats, repairing to 
their usual feast, fall one by one into the barrel, where their 
scrambling for a foothold on the brick is sure to attract 
numbers of their fellows. 

It is exceedingly unfortunate that it is considered necessary, 
in the interest of game, to wage a w^ar of extermination 
against almost all the natural enemies of the rat. Stoats, 
weasels, owls, and kestrels are indiscriminately slaughtered, 
the domestic cat alone being tolerated. There can be no 
doubt whatever that, from the farmer's point of view, owls, 
kestrels, and weasels should be regarded in the light of 
friends. As regards the stoat — easily recognisable by its 
black-tipped tail and its white winter coat — the pros and 
cons are perhaps more evenly balanced. 

Of the true mice, three species are sufficiently well known 
in this country, the House mouse i^Mits miiscidiLs)^ the Long- 
tailed field m.ouse (J///6^ sylvaticus)^ and the Harvest mouse 
{Mus miniLtits)^ the smallest of European species. The 
first named is too well known to need description, but it is 
by its depredations in the rick-yards that it chiefly affects 
the farmer. Mr. Harting well remarks : ^' The weasel is to 
the mouse what the ferret is to the rat — an inveterate foe, 
and its presence in a stackyard ought to be welcomed, 
instead of being looked upon with a suspicion which too 
often results in its untimely death.'' The long-tailed field- 
mouse, which breeds in cornfields, hedgerows, and gardens, 
works sad havoc among grain, seeds, fruit, and nuts, storing 



RATS AND MICE. 



37 



them up in astonishing quantities in its underground 
retreat. The beautiful Httle harvest mouse, though its 
habits are perhaps equally reprehensible, is too small and 
too rare to be a serious pest to the farmer. 

Against the character of the Shrew there is really nothing 
to be advanced, and its least enthusiastic admirers will, at 
all events, admit that it is perfectly harmless. Often called 
the shrew-mouse, it is almost universally confounded with 
the rodents to which it bears a general resemblance, and 
is ruthlessly killed. It may be easily recognised by its long 
tapering snout and its squared tail. 

There are several English species, and all are strictly 
insectivorous. It has many natural enemies, and, in addition 
to this, it seems subject to some mysterious disease which 
kills off great numbers in the autumn. 

Nature is constantly enforcing the lesson, that when man 
interferes too greatly with the nice balance of forces she 
sets up, he may expect to pay the penalty, sometimes in 
ways little anticipated by him. In certain seasons and 
localities, special forms of life may unduly increase and be 
with wisdom combated, but there is always a tendency to 
proceed too far in this direction, and to extirpate when 
more moderate measures would avail. 

MICE AS ENEMIES TO WOODLAISTDS AND 
NURSERIES. 

DORMICE {^Myoxidce). 

Of the three kinds* of Dormice, the Common Dormouse 
and the Garden Dormouse are more confined to the Avarmer 
tracts of central and southern England than the Hazel 
Dormouse, which is more frequent throughout the colder, 
northern tracts of Europe. On the whole they closely re- 



^ These varieties of the dormouse are local ; th^re is, of course, only one dormous 
known to British Naturalists — Muscardinus aveZlanariiis—EmroR. 



RATS AMD MICE, 



39 



semble the squirrels with regard to the nature of the damage 
they do in woods and orchards, but they are injurious in a 
much less degree. They love to feed on acorns, chestnuts, 
beech and hazel nuts, and fruit, peel the tender rind from 
young trees, and rob the nests of certain insectivorous 
birds of their young broods. They also bite off the young 
sprays of conifers, like squirrels ; but they nibble off the 
needles only, and do not feed on the flowering-buds. Alder, 
birch, beech, and hazel, of ten to twenty-five years of age, 
are most liable to be damaged through gnawing of the bark, 
but the injuries thus inflicted occur mostly in narrow, hori- 
zontal lines, and are not so large as those due to squirrels. 
On the whole, their attention is rather confined to woods 
formed of the broad-leaved species of trees than to those 
in which coniferous trees are most numerous. As they feed 
during the night-time it is much more difficult to find them 
actually engaged in the work of gnawing than is the case 
with squirrels or certain other kinds of mice. Before retiring 
into the hollov/s of trees for their winter period of rest they 
lay up food-supplies in the shape of various fruits and 
berries. 

As, under favourable circumstances, dormice increase with 
great rapidity, active measures must be be taken to keep 
them in check. Wherever the marten is to be found 
they are not likely to multiply unduly ; but otherwise traps 
will have to be laid for them, as their small size and nocturnal 
habits alike preclude the advisability of shooting them. 

AIICE {Alicndc^), 
Mice differ from voles in having a pointed head, large 
ears, and a tail as long as the body. Two species, the 
Harvest Mouse {Afics rainntus) and the Long-tailed Field 
or Garden Mouse (^lus sylvaticiis) do damage in woods 
and nurseries. They turn up and devour acorns, beech- 
mast, and hazel-nuts that have been sown out in the 



40 FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURTFUL. 

autumn, and nibble the cones of conifers in order to 
get at the seed inside. During winter they also gnaw 
the buds of young seedlings and transplants in the 
nursery beds, and of young plantations up to about 
ten or twelve years of age ; beech, ash, maple, sycamore, 
and willow being the species of trees which seem to attract 
them most, although in hard winters they will attack any 
young growth they can obtain access to. In orchards young 
stems up to two inches lin diameter at the base may be 
gnawed through, and when the injuries have been inflicted 
at from one to three feet above the soil, the damage is due 
to mice and not to voles. Seedling growth in nurseries and 
sowings is sometimes damaged to a greater or less extent by 
the burrowing of these mice, although in this respect the 
damage done is much less than by voles. Mice are chiefly 
to be found on warm sunny exposures with a tangled soil- 
covering of grass and weeds. They are not as prolific as 
voles : the wood-mouse produces from four to six young 
ones twice or thrice in the course of a year, while the field- 
mouse produces from four to eight three times a year. 

The measures adoptable for keeping m.ice in check are 
included in those which are noticed in Chapter VII. with 
reference to voles ; but as the former always remain in the 
woods, whereas the latter only migrate into them from the 
fields in winter, the exterminative remedies are not generally 
so effective. On the w^hole, the best way of keeping w^ood- 
mice in check consists in the protection of their natural 
enemies, such as the weasel, the fox, and the owl. 



CHAPTER V. 

HARES AND HABBITS. 

The term Ground-game applies to hares and rabbits, and 
these animals, although they belong to the same family 
{Leporidce) and are similar in many respects, yet in a few 
details they differ as to their mode of life and habits. 
Before entering into a description of the damage committed 
and the loss incurred by hares and rabbits, the methods 
employed in preventing their attacks, and the aids and helps 
introduced by legislation from time to time to enable the 
tenant and occupier of the land to cope with these creatures, 
it will be useful to give a short insight into their natural 
history. 

The most marked feature in the life-history of hares and 
rabbits is their marvellous fecundity ; the latter surpass the 
former in this respect, and it has been computed that a pair 
of rabbits in four years, under favourable conditions, will 
produce the enormous number of 1,274,840 descendants. 
Although this is possible, it must be owned that such 
extraordinary fertility is not very probable. 

THE HARE {Lepiis Etcropcetis), 

The Hare (Lepus EiLropceiLs\ although possessed of no 
actual means of offence or defence,has been furnishedby nature 
with wonderful perception and acuteness of hearing, and 
also great speed and endurance. Its long ears endue it with 
enhanced hearing, and its eyes are so placed laterally as to 
receive the rays of light on every side ; therefore, it has the 



42 FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURIFUL. 



power of discerning objects distinctly in the rear, although 
it runs forward. When one considers its numerous and 
powerful enemies, it must be granted that its extraordinary 
vision and auditory faculties are merciful provisions of 
nature. Besides these gifts, the hinder limbs of the animal 
are of such peculiar structure and length that it is enabled 
to run up-hill with immense celerit3\ Most animals which 
would naturally pursue the hare possess swiftness in the 
opposite direction, and puss, with an instinctive knowledge 
of this advantage, often flees up-hill, and in this way eludes 
or discomfits its would-be captors. The hare sleeps by 
day in its ''form/' a spot to which it constantly returns, 
and is with difficulty compelled to abandon. The sagacious 
creature selects her retreat where the surrounding objects 
match her own hue in colour. The hare breeds three or 
four times a year, and has a litter of young from two to 
four in number. The leverets, or young hares, immediately 
they are born possess to the full the gifts of sight, hearing 
and speed so essential to their preservation — indeed, were 
this not so, the race would quickly cease to exist. The 
animal is short-lived, never attaining more than seven or 
•eight years. The genus is widely spread over the world, 
and in cold climates some species change the ordinary 
■colour to white. 

THE RABBIT {Lcpus citnicnlus) 
Inhabits most of the temperate portions of Europe. 
This animal was not originally a native of England 
but was introduced into this country from Spain or 
Portugal. It can readily be distinguished from the 
liare owing to its smaller size and the shortness of 
its ears and legs, nor does it possess the wonderful 
speed of the latter quadruped ; it is owing to this 
that it seeks its safety, if molested, by burrowing and 
tunnelling in the ground. It is, again, peculiarly social in 
its habits, and large numbers of its kind congregate together. 



HARES AND RABBITS. 



43 



The prolificacy of the rabbit is stupendous, and it will breed 
seven or eight times a year, its progeny being reared at the 
bottom of a separate hole, termed " stab " in some districts ; 
they are born blind and are perfectly helpless. Considerable 
value is attached to the rabbit as an article of food, and its 
flesh is greatly appreciated. Again, the skin is of worth, 
being largely employed in the manufacture of felt hats, 
muffs, furs, and boas. The refuse skin, and ears and feet are 
used as articles of manure in fruit-growing and hop-producing 
districts. In localities where hares and rabbits abound, 




THE EABBIT. 

considerable damage is done, and great loss frequently 
sustained by farmers and cultivators of the land generally. 
No crop seems to escape their ravages ; hardly any plant is 
free from their attacks, for they will devour Vvnth avidity 
almost every description of agricultural produce. Amongst 
corn crops they make persistent havoc, not only when the 
young and tender blade is shooting from the ground, but 
also when the ripe corn is standing in the fields. From, 
seed-time to harvest, wheat, oats, and barley alike suffer from 
their onslaughts. Hares, especially, take pleasure in nipping 



44 FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND LLURFFLF. 



off the young shoots of cereals, thereby causing the crop to 
come to maturity and ripen later than it otherwise would. 
Again, both hares and rabbits bite off the corn at the knots 
or joints of the stem, for the sake, it is said, of the sweet or 
sugary matter found there. In fields of standing corn, paths 
or ways are frequently seen, and here hares are numerous ; 
the crop has been diminished greatly on account of these 
tracks, which are sometimes as wide as two feet across, and 
give the corn the appearance of old stubble. Amongst 
straw crops especially ground game destroy far more food 
than they really require ; they roam afar through the fields, 
and cut and clear away large open spaces, to allow them 
more room for play, and in the large amount of sustenance 
before them they bite down and wantonly destroy more 
than they can possibly consumic. The injury to crops from 
ground game is certainly most marked in dry seasons, as 
dry weather not only favours the productive powers of hares 
and rabbits, but also weakens and stunts the plants, and 
therefore they succumb the more easily to the depredations 
of these animals. In a dry summer, such as that experienced 
in 1893, rabbits were more plentiful and more destructive 
than they had been for years. Turnips and swedes, 
mangolds and carrots, are eaten off with great relish 
by ground game when the plant is young, and even 
when mature the outer skin is broken by their teeth, and 
the bulb is soon destroyed by frost, or is quickly rotted by 
the weather. In such cases hares and rabbits do not confine 
their whole attention to individual plants, but nibble small 
pieces from numerous bulbs. A witness before the Select 
Committee to inquire into the Game Laws, in 1873, stated 
that he had had half of a crop of turnips, bought for his 
sheep, ruined by hares and rabbits. Occasionally, in some 
districts, where ground game is present in great numbers, 
crops such as winter tares, or winter carrots, have to be 
abandoned entirely, owing to the impossibility of, and 



HAKES AND RABBITS, 



45 



complete failure in, trying to raise a crop. Artificial 
grasses, trifolium, and clovers cannot stand against the 
ravages of hares and rabbits, since the persistent bite of these 
animals destroys the plants ; and, although rye-grass will 
struggle on for a few months, other grasses will die at once 
— the reason being that rabbits pinch off the grasses with 
their teeth and do not tear them off like sheep and bullocks. 
Indigenous grasses are, in some degree, proof against ground 
game, but neither cattle nor sheep will feed on pastures 
w^here rabbits are numerous and where the grass is fouled or 
tainted by them. Pastures which are thus stained are 
useless, as the grass is soured and poisoned, and cattle and 
sheep will almost starve before they will touch the herbage. 
In the same manner it is asserted that hares will not remain 
on land which is fouled by rabbits. 

Lucerne and sainfoin are also much injured, as well as 
cabbages — indeed, nearly all the vegetables raised in market 
or private gardens are eaten by ground game, and it is 
difficult to discover a crop which they will not molest. 
Fruit plantations and young trees planted out in woods, 
unless protected, will quickly be destroyed. Hares and 
rabbits, especially in the winter months and in frosty 
weather when food is scarce, will peel off the bark of young 
trees and leave them to perish, or check their growth to 
such a degree that they never attain their proper shape, 
size, or fruitfulness. Hares also nip off, for mere mischief, 
the shoots in woods and plantations, and those of rare 
shrubs and trees in shrubberies and gardens. Fruit-growers 
who have not taken the trouble to protect their young pear, 
apple, damson, and plum trees know to their cost the 
great loss and damage sustained from the attacks of ground 
game. 

In hop-yards or hop-gardens the farmer frequently 
discovers the young tender bines eaten off by these pests, 
and even when the bine has ascended and is high up the 



46 FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURTFUL. 

pole the rabbits sever it at the bottom with their teeth, 
and leave it to wither and die. This action on their part 
seems strange, as they can derive but little nutriment from 
it. As an example of the wanton mischief they perform, 
the following is a noteworthy incident. They will, if a hop- 
pole fall to the ground owing to high wind or other causes, 
strip the hops from the bines, but leave them untouched 
and uneaten beside the pole. 

The methods of prevention against injury to different 
crops by hares and rabbits are numerous and effectual if 
carried out in a right manner. Mr. Rooke, in his evidence 
before the Committee in 1873, says that wire netting is 
quite sufficient, if put down in a workman-like manner, to 
protect crops and farms from ground game. Wire netting 
(galvanised wire, if -inch mesh, is the most suitable kind) is 
the best acknowledged method of checking the ravages of 
ground game, and if placed round crops liable to be attacked 
is found to be thoroughly efficacious. Mr. Rooke recom- 
mended wire netting 3 feet wide, 6 inches of which is 
placed in the ground in order to prevent the rabbits from 
burrowing. This netting is secured to posts and a top-wire 
is stretched from post to post. A ditch is dug on the 
protected side and the wire is placed on the edge of the 
ditch. The first cost for putting up protection of this kind 
is for every mile, and the annual expense of repairing 
and keeping in order is ^4 17s. 2d. per mile. Mr. Arch, 
a witness before the same Committee, said that it would 
be only justice for the game-preserver to put up fences of 
the above nature. It is said that this wire netting is 
equally adaptable on all soils, both heavy and light, but in 
some instances it has been found necessary to place a layer 
of chalk under the fence. 

In fruit plantations and amongst woods wire netting, or 
twigs of quick or thorn, are sometimes placed round the 
trees. Sacking or matting is also tied round. Trees may 



HARES AND RABBITS. 



47 



be smeared with any mixture which is obnoxious to ground 
game and at the same time not injurious to the trees, — 
a compound of tempered clay, cowdung, and soot, formed 
into a paste with water, and brushed on the trees has been 
found especially successful. 

Hares and rabbits are easily snared, and it is allowed by 
law to place traps or gins in the holes and burrows of rabbits 
— but only in their holes and not in the open field. 

Many cultivators, although they have no ground game on 
their property, and perhaps not even an abundance of hares 
and rabbits in the immediate vicinity, may suffer consider- 
ably from the inroads of ground game ; for rabbits, and 
hares especially, will go a long way for food, and will travel 
great distances for any special crop which they delight in, 
such as a field of carrots or parsnips. 

Rabbits and hares are, of course, kept down to a large 
extent by the gun, and by sportsmen ; by dogs, and by 
poachers, and by their natural foes, the fox, the stoat, and the 
weasel. Birds of prey, such as crows, members of the hawk 
family, and owls, are extremely partial to young rabbits and 
leverets. When the extraordinarily productive powers of 
hares and rabbits are taken into consideration, the former 
producing two or three young two or three times a year, and 
the latter from four to ten young six or seven times a year, 
it must be acknowledged that ground game should be kept 
constantly in check, and it will be gathered from previous 
remarks how great an extent of loss and damage may be 
committed where hares and rabbits are over-abundant.'''' 

* On this point Miss E. A. Ormerod contributes the following note: — " I 
think the rabbit's prolificacy is often overestimated, I daresay that the facts are 
very well known practical!}', and what can be made to take place in domesticity 
very likely differs a good deal from what does actually take place in wild life. 
I trans':ribe a quotation from Dr. J. Ritzema Bos's fine book, entitled ' The 
Injurious and Useful among Animals : — 'Rabbits increase in a larger ratio than fowls 
These animals copulate from winter to the end of autumn, and in that period the female 
gives birth five or six times to her young, to the number of four to eight.' I find in the 
second edition of Bezuick's Brit. Quads, the statement that 'the fecunditv of the rabbit is 



48 FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURTFUL, 



A lesson as to the truth of this is to be derived from the 
position the rabbit has taken in Australasia, where it has 
developed and increased with such strides that the animal, 
which was primarily introduced in Australia, Tasmania, 
and New Zealand for the purpose of use and profitj is now 
regarded in these colonies in the light of a curse rather than 
a blessing. In such numbers has it multiplied that 
a large reward has been offered to anyone suggesting 
a remedy for its subjection, if not for its complete 
annihilation. English legislators showed their appreci- 
ation of the fact that ground game must be put 
down with a strong hand by passing the Ground 
Game Act in 1880, an xAct for the better protection 
of occupiers of land against injury to their crops from 
ground game. This measure was, no doubt, an outcome of 
the Select Committee on the Game Laws in 1S73. This 
Committee, after the evidence brought before them, came to 
the following conclusion concerning ground game : 

That the principal, if not the sole, cause of mischief to 
crops is attributable to rabbits and hares, and that the time 
has arrived when legislative protection, given to these 
animals by the Game Laws, should be withdrawn ; and that; 
since there is no difficulty in rearing and feeding such 
animals on enclosed ground or in confinement, the wants of 
the nation could be supplied in this way." To sum up, it 
was recommended that rabbits and hares should be taken 
out of the fostering protection of the Game Laws, and that 
no licence should be required, in respect of taking, buying, 
or selling them. 

The Ground Game Act of 1880 allows every occupier 
to have a right, inseparable from his occupation, to kill 

truly astonishing. It breeds seven times in the year, and generally produces eight young 
at a time ; from which it is calculated that one pair may increase in the course of four 
years to the ama2ing number of one million two hundred and seventy-four thousand 
eight hundred and forty,' etc., etc. I fancy that Bewick has been the father of a good 
many marvellous statements of the prolificacy of rabbits, and that this is one of them." — 
Editor. 



HARES AND RABBITS, 



49 



ground game, and also allows the occupier, and persons 
duly authorised by him, to kill, take, and sell ground game 
without a game licence. By this Act, also, no person may 
shoot ground game between the expiration of the first hour 
after sunset and the commencement of the last hour before 
sunrise ; spring traps, except in rabbit holes, and poison of 
any kind, are prohibited. 

This Act, which seems a fair and just measure, and 
which enables a tenant to take somewhat into his own 
hands the quantity of ground game carried on his farm, 
gave rise in 1892 to another measure, the Hares Preserva- 
tion Act, which enacts that during the months of March, 
April, May, June, and July it is unlawful to sell, or expose 
for sale, hares or leverets. This measure does not apply to 
foreign hares. It was deemed expedient to allow a close 
time for these animals, as it was considered in some districts 
that the hare would be speedily exterminated.''' As has been 
stated before, the hare is surrounded by many enemies ; its 
young are born in the open field, and are consequently 
exposed to various dangers. Not only are hares shot by 
sportsmen, and snared and killed by poachers, but they are, 
unlike their near relative the rabbit, coursed by greyhounds 
and hunted by harriers. A hare is one of the easiest animals 
to snare, and it affords a better mark, and one of more value, 
than the rabbit. The damage committed by hares is un- 
doubtedly great ; but it has been ascertained that, unless 
protected, they would gradually die out ; therefore, a close 
time for hares is, on the whole, a salutary measure, and the 
Hares Preservation Act, 1892, is acceptable to sportsmen and 



^ Concerning the *' Hares Preservation Act, 1892," much misconception exists. The 
'^close time " (March to July, inclusive) is a theoretical rather than a practical one. Hares 
and leverets maybe killed during these months by those entitled to kill them, ^^^Z f//^',v 
must not he exposed for sale. It is, however, both cruel and wasteful to kill any food 
animal during the breeding season, and when practical it is to be hoped that the hare may 
be spared. Of late years it has been a fast-diminishing species — a fact to be regretted. — 
Editor. 

E 



so FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURTFOL. 



landlords, tenants and farmers. It is hoped that landlords 
and game-preservers will not in future preserve unlimited 
and unnecessary quantities of game, more especially ground 
game ; that they will perceive — and many of them, it must 
be admitted, have already done this — that in these years of 
agricultural depression the landlord, the tenant, and the 
labourer should join together in one common interest — 
namely, to endeavour to work the land at a profit to each 
class. Game-preservers, by preserving game unduly and 
without restriction, in many cases beyond reason, hamper 
and hinder the farmer in his vocation, add to the many 
troubles to which he is subject, and raise up a spirit of 
animosity and contention, and a desire, which has been 
expressed in some instances, to totally abolish the Game 
Laws. If game-preservers were to act fairly to the tenants, 
and remember that their sport and pleasure frequently 
interfere with the livelihood of others, numerous and great 
heartburnings would be spared."^ 

On another point Miss Ormerod writes as follows : — " Another remarkable and 
very unpleasant circumstance coincident with the great number of rabbits present on 
the land, as well as LimncPiis, or water-snails, in the little grassy pools, was a 
serious prevah>nce of liver-fluke in the sheep. The bailiff declared he ' never killed a 
sheep with a soand liver.' How far he was correct in this sweeping statenient I cannot 
tell, but so far as ' fluke ' being only too plentiful there was no doubt." — Editor. 



CHAPTER VI. 



ENEMIES TO WOODLANDS AND 
NURSERIES. 

Among the ]\Iammalia that are specially injurious to wood- 
lands and nurseries several distinct classes may be noted — 
viz. : Large Game, including red-deer, fallow-deer, and roe- 
deer ] Ground Game, including hares and rabbits ; and 
Vermin, including the smaller Rodentia, squirrels, dormice, 
rats, and voles, as well as the mole, badger, and weasel, some 
of which, however, are at the same time of great assistance 
in keeping the other more injurious kinds from increasing 
too rapidl}^ 

The damage done by game of different kinds is by no 
means confined to the woodlands, which serve as their covers 
and breeding-places. Owing to their quietness, and to the 
fact that under the existing laws they may not be invaded 
by the farmer, woodland tracts only too frequently 'serve 
principally as game preserves, from which deer, hares, 
rabbits, pheasants, partridges, pigeons, etc., sally forth at 
their feeding-times, committing considerable havoc on 
the crops of various kinds coming within their reach. 
The ravages of this nature that are directly permitted, and 
even encouraged, by the landlords, are now distinctly of a 
nature and an extent which call for some notice from the 
Royal Commission at present sitting (1894), with a view to 
the framing of proposals for the practical alleviation of the 
existing agricultural depression and distress. For so long 
as our British woodlands rank only, or principally, as game 
preserves, it stands to reason that tenant-farmers, and the 



52 



FARM VERMIN, HELFfUL AND HURTFUL. 



nation generally, cannot possibly reap the advantages which 
otherwise would be theirs, if they were allowed to avail 
themselves of the full productive capacity of the soil, in 
place of having to suffer a diminution of each year's harvest 
through the game preserve, for the amusement of their land- 
lord and his guests. 

But even where woods are grown on purely sylvicultural 
And financial principles, the amount of damage that may be 
done can sometimes become very serious. 

LARGE GAME. 
Red-deer {Cervus claplms). 
Red deer bite off the top buds and young succulent shoots 
in plantations, often causing the im.mediate death of young 
plants, and prejudicing the development of those of greater 
age and sturdier growth. This is more particularly the case 
during the late autumn and the winter months, when there 
is a want ^of good grazing ; but it is also occasionally 
noticeable during the summer months. The trees which 
suffer most in this manner are ash, aspen, willow, 
beech, hornbeam, oak, maple, sycamore, hazel, larch, and 
silver fir ; whilst birch, elm, Scots pine, and spruce are 
much less exposed to damage. But it is almost invariably 
the case that any particular species of exotic tree which 
may happen to be a rarity in the neighbourhood, and 
which is introduced among the other trees in individual 
specimens onl}^, seems to offer specially toothsome attractions 
to deer. 

The extent to which the nibbled plants are prejudiced in 
growth differs according to the species of the tree. Oak, 
beech, and hornbeam exhibit a stronger recuperative 
power than ash, maple, or sycamore ; whilst amiong 
conifers the silver fir overcomes the damage most easily. 
Owing to their far smaller supplies of nutrient reserves, the 
conifers are, on the whole, much more exposed to serious 
damage than the broad -leaved species of trees. 



ENEMIES TO JVOODLAXDS AND NURSERIES. 



53 



But much o-reater dama2:e tlian that which is caused 
merely by browsing or nibbHng can be done by the red- 
deer when they begin to gnaw and strip the bark from poles 
of the smooth-barked species of trees. Young spruce and 
oak are most exposed to this particular danger, wliilst 
Scots pine, black pine, larch, alder, and birch suffer 




RED-DEER. 



damage least frequently. The woods most liable to be 
attacked are young healthy spruce plantations from twenty 
to forty years of age, and oak coppices of fifteen to twenty 
years. When Scots pine plantations have attained an age 
of twenty years, they practically outgrow^ the danger, owing 
to the thickening of the bark ; while spruce crops are 
liable to attacks up to about sixty years of age. Damage of 



54 FARM VERMIS, HELFFUL AXD HURFFUF. 



this sort is most liable to occur in plantations that have 
been recently thinned ; for not only can the deer move 
about with greater freedom, but the bark becomes thicker 
at the same time and more succulent and juicy in conse- 
quence of the larger individual growing-space and the better 
supplies of light, air, and warmth available for the foliage. 

Simple gnawing of the bark mostly takes place during 
the winter months when there is a dearth of food ; but, in 
its more injurious form of stripping, it is also often continued 
into the spring and summer months, when the sap is in flow, 
partly out of sheer wantonness, and partly because of 
the succulence of the sappy bark, and the ease with which 
it can be stripped. Having bitten through the rind with 
the lower incisors, and taken it firmly between the upper 
and lower teeth, the deer steps gradually back and the strip 
of bark is torn off from the stem, sometimes to a height of 
over six feet. The wounds thus occasioned often take long 
to heal, and, until they become cicatrised, offer an open 
door for the entrance of fungoid disease into the stem : at 
the same time, by inducing sickly growth for some time 
after the wounds are made, such injuries predispose young 
trees to attacks from injurious insects. 

The stags strip the bark more frequently than the hinds, 
and seem to do most damage at the time they are beginning 
to set their antlers in the spring. It is supposed that the 
tannic acid contained within the bark serves as a digestive 
tonic when deer are fed with hay in deer-parks, and that 
this and other ingredients present in the sapp}' cambium 
stimulate the secretion of matters requisite for the formation 
of the stag's antlers and for other physiological purposes. 
It is worthy of special remark that scripping of the bark 
seldom occurs except when the deer are confined within a 
ring fence ; when thev are free to roam about over extensive 
areas gnawing is unusual and stripping rare. The damage 
is usually perpetrated in the morning, when the deer are 



ENEMIES TO WOODLANDS AND NURSERIES. 



returning to the woods from feeding, and is most frequent 
during rainy weather, when the bark has become softened 
by moisture. The damage heals most quickly in oak 
and ash among broad-leaved trees, and in silver-fir, larch, 
and Weymouth pine am.ong conifers ; maple, sycamore, and 
spruce seem to possess the lowest recuperative powers as 
regards this class of wounds. Even when they heal over 
completely, which is seldom the case, the lower portion of 
the bole is usually rendered almost totally unfit for the 
higher technical uses as timber. 

AVhilst rubbing the velvet from their antlers during July 
and August, and again from sheer v/antcnness during the 
rutting season towards the beginning of autumn, stags often 
•do a good deal of damage by using young saplings and poles 
as fraying-stocks.'' The fraying usually occurs at night, and 
the species of trees most liable to be injured are those having 
•soft bark, like lime, aspen, maple, horse-chestnut, willow) 
larch, silver fir, and Weymouth pine. These species are 
more especially exposed to danger when they occur scattered 
individually amongst woods formed of other kinds of trees. 

Besides doing a great deal of damage through grazing on 
the young seedlings and transplants in nurseries into which 
they have effected an entrance, deer also commit serious 
injury by treading down the young growth with their sharp 
cutting, horny hoofs. 

To endeavour to estimate, either as to the amount of raw 
produce or of its exchange value, the damage done during 
the night-time by deer to meadows and farm-crops would 
be entirely beyond the scope of this chapter. That, however, 
in conjunction with what is done by other kinds of game, 
it helps to swell the total damage annually inflicted to an 
amount that really is of national importance can admit 
of no doubt. 

In orchards, too, considerable havoc is done during the 
night-time by deer when the apples and pears are beginning to 



56 FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURTFUL, 



ripen. The hinds eat voraciously of all the fruit hanging 
within their reach, whilst the stags stand on their hind legs 
for the purpose of bringing down the fruit and breaking off 
the smaller fruit-laden branches that are situated beyond the 
reach of their mouths. 

Fallow-deer [Cervzis dama). 
Fallow-deer commit very nearly the same kinds of damage 
in woods and nurseries as is occasioned by the red-deer. But 
as they are more restless and more dainty than the latter in 
their grazing, they perhaps do somewhat more damage by 
nibbling young growth and trampling it under foot. On 
the other hand, they are much less given to gnawing and 
stripping the bark ; this only takes place when they are 
confined within deer-parks, but not when they have the 
freedom of the forest, and can roam over large areas. The 
fallow-stag is somewhat later than the red-deer in fraying 
the velvet from its broad antlers ; but, like the latter, it 
loves to select the less common species of trees as fraying- 
stocks. 

Roe-deer {Capreohis caprcea). 
Roe-deer are fond of varying their ordinary food with 
beech-nuts and acorns, or with the cotyledons of young oak 
and beeches, and love to nibble and browse on the buds and 
young shoots of many kinds of trees, particularly when 
these latter are succulent and juicy in the spring. They 
exhibit in this latter respect a preference for maple, syca- 
more, acacia, oak, beech, ash, aspen, willow, larch, and silver 
fir, whilst pines and spruce appear less dainty to them, and 
alder and birch the least toothsome of all. But these general 
preferences also give place, as in the case of the red and 
fallow deer, to the superior attractions offered by any par- 
ticular kinds of trees that, being of less frequent local 
occurrence, are simply scattered individually throughout 
the w^oods. Plantations with a sunny southern or south-west- 
ern exposure are apt to suffer more from nibbling during 
the winter months than those having a northern or north 



ENEMIES TO WOODLANDS AND NURSERIES, 57 



eastern aspect, as the roe-deer seek the warmer locaHties 
during the colder portion of the year. They do not, how- 
ever, like the larger kinds of deer, gnaw or strip the bark of 
poles or saplings. 

The bucks select small, smooth saplings as fraying-stocks 
when clearing their horns of the velvet during April, and 
again when full of wanton mischief during the rutting 
season in July and August ; the species for which they have 
prefeience appear to be larch, silver fir, Weymouth 
pine, aspen, lime, acacia, white alder, and mountain ash ; 
and when these are planted as ornamental trees along the 
edges of drives or green lanes running through the woods^ 
they are exposed to special danger. 

For protection against roe-deer during the winter-time, 
the fencing round nurseries and gardens requires to be at 
least four and a half feet high. When once they have 
managed to effect an entrance, either through any gap in the 
fencing, or by leaping over it, they are very apt to acquire 
the habit of returning to feed on the plants put out in the 
nursery-beds. The erection of scarecrows is of little use in 
this case, as the roe-deer soon get accustomed to them. 

The leading shoots of conifers can easily be protected 
against roe-deer by a very simple and inexpensive method, 
which consists in lying bits of newspaper, about four inches 
square, round the buds at the top of the leading shoot ; if 
this be done in autumn, the roll of paper will usually remain 
attached like a collar at the base of the new shoot till the 
following autumn. Or if the top shoots be coated with a 
mixture of four parts fresh cowdung, one part coal-tar or 
slacked lime, and just enough urine to make the whole 
assume the consistency of thick oil-paint, which may be laid 
on with a wooden spud, then neither roe-deer nor red-deer 
will injure them. Whichever of these methods is adopted, 
it, of course, has to be repeated each autumn until the plants 
outgrow the danger of being bitten, and of thus losing their 
leading shoots. 



58 



FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURTFUL, 



GROUND GAME. 

Hares [Lepus Einopceus). 

Hares damage plants of woodland growth by biting the 
buds as far up as they can reach, and by nibbling and gnaw- 
ing the bark of young trees and poles. Where they have a 
considerable choice of species of trees, as on large woodland 
estates, they exhibit preference for beech, hornbeam, aspen, 
ash, elm, maple, and sycamore ; whilst the conifers generally, 
and Scots pine and spruce in particular, attract them in a 
less degree than the broad-leaved species of trees. But in 
comparatively un wooded tracts, like many of the Scottish 
moors, it is often absolutely impossible to rear plantations 
even of pines, spruce, or larch, unless they are well fenced 
in and protected to a height of 2\ to 2J ft. with ^vire net- 
ting. During hard winters hares flock from all the 
neighbouring hill-districts and moors to the plantations, and 
form well-trodden runs round the fencing in their endeavours 
to effect an entrance. In parks, and on the residential por- 
tions of estates, wherever they have any marked oppor- 
tunities of selection, hares single out papilionaceous species 
of trees, more particularly the acacia {Robzm'a pseudo- 
acacia and Gleditschia tri acanthus)^ for gnawing and peeling 
off the bark. In the Highlands of Scotland it is more par- 
ticularly the Blue Hare [Lepiis variabilis) that commits the 
greatest damao;e. In orchards hares sometimes commit 
very extensive damage to young fruit trees of the better sort, 
after they have been grafted. Experience shows that apple- 
trees suffer most from such attacks, cherry-trees to a less 
extent, and pear-trees least of all. 

The best remedy against damage of this sort undoubtedly 
lies in shooting the hares off. But failing the legal power 
to do this, the protection of young plantations, nurseries, or 
orchards may be ensured by means of a complete fence of 
vrire netting offering no opportunities of entrance. Where 
this is not applicable, the stems should be covered from 



ENEMIES TO WOODLANDS AND NURSERIES- 59 



Xovember to April with a casing of straw or of thorny 
brushwood, or should be coated over to a height of a couple 
of feet with a mixture of cowdung, lime, and asafoetida. 

Rabbits {^Lepus cunictiltLs), 

Rabbits occur in greatest numbers where the soil is of a 
sandy nature. In addition to damaging plants, as hares do 
by nibbling them and by gnawing off the bark so as to 
interfere with their normal development and often with their 
very existence, rabbits also do an excessive amount of 
damage by undermining the soil. 

The kind of tree most likely to be injured by the nibbling 
of the shoots is the Scots pine, the chief species of trees 
planted out on sandy soils, although black pines, larch, and 
spruce all suffer to a considerable extent when they come 
within the reach of rabbits. 

Wherever in extensive woodlands they have full oppor- 
tunity of making any choice in the matter, they exhibit a 
preference for gnawing the bark of hornbeam, ash, acacia, 
aspen, willow, hazel, dog-wood, and fruit trees. But on vast 
sandy, moorland stretches, where woods occur only here and 
there over small areas, they are exceedingly apt to overrun 
young plantations, and to commit great havoc by nibbling 
and gnawing the young shoots of all the different kinds of 
plants, by tunnelling and undermining the light soil, and by- 
damaging the roots. 

It is a peculiarity worth noticing that, in woodland districts 
where rabbits are at all plentiful, hares are less numerous 
than usual ; for the restlessness of the former would appear 
to be highly inimical to the comfort of the latter. 

Even despite the steady use of the gun, and the aid of 
ferrets and traps, rabbits are apt to breed in excessive numbers, 
wherever they take possession of sandy soil and form their 
warrens. Among their other natural enemies may be men- 
tioned the weasel, the stoat, and the fox, whose numerical 
increase in any considerable degree, however, would hardly 



6o 



FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURTFUL. 



be compatible with the other objects favouring the preserva- 
tion of game. For young plantations, nurseries, and 
orchards, and for the protection of individual specimens 
of valuable species in parks, the same remedies are recom- 
mended as against hares — viz., good fencing with wire net- 
ting all round the base in the former cases, and encasing in 
straw or brushwood in the latter. In putting wire netting 
round fences, it is necessary to insert it below the level of 
the ground, as otherwise the rabbits can burrow under it. 
The best plan is to bend it slightly outwards at the same 
time, to stop the rabbits from beginning to make deep 
burrows, which would be sure to carry them past the 
wire. 



CHAPTER VII. 



ENEMIES TO WOODLANDS AND 

'NURSI!i'Ri:RS— continued. 

VERMIN. 

The Squirrel (Sciuriis vulgaris). 
The Common Squirrel, when occurring in large numbers, 
commits considerably greater damage in woodlands and 
nurseries than may be popularly laid to the charge of 
this pretty, graceful little animal. The good it does by 
devouring cockchafer grubs and the chrysalides of saw- 
flies and other insects is far outweighed by the injuries it 
inflicts. It not only devours large quantities of acorns, 
beech-nuts, chestnuts, and the seeds of conifers, which it 
obtains by pulling the cones to pieces, but it also picks out 
the hearts of buds during winter, scrapes up the cotyledons 
of seedlings germinating in spring, bites off succulent young 
sprays, and gnaws the bark from young saplings and poles. 

Where squirrels have an abundant choice of food in 
woodlands, their chief articles of nourishment are beech- 
nuts, acorns, hazel-nuts, and spruce seed, although the 
fruits of the maple, sycamore, and hornbeam, and the 
seeds of the coniferous trees, are by no means left untouched. 
In orchards they attack any kind of fruit, but exhibit a 
preference for Vv^alnuts and apples. 

The attacks made on buds are most marked during the 
winters following upon cool seasons in which the trees have 
not been sufficiently stimulated, with regard to the forma- 
tion of reserve supplies of nutrients, to enable them to set 
and mature their average quantities of seed. The buds 
selected for food are chiefly the flowering-buds, owing to 
the larger am.ount of protein which they contain. The 



62 



FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURFFUL, 



species of trees suffering most in this manner are conifers, 
especially spruce^ silver fir, and Scots pine. In young 
thickets that have not yet begun to set flowering-buds, the 
squirrels bite the young shoots through about four inches 
below the terminal cluster of buds, which they can then 
devour in comfort, whilst on older growths, whose shoots 
will easily bear their weight, they make their meal without 
having first to be at the trouble of biting off the shoots. 




THE SQUIRREL. 



In young pole or tree forests they are forced, in order to get 
at the male flower-buds situated at the extremity of the thin 
twigs, to gnaw off the shoots above the last whorl before 
they can enjoy the dainty morsel in comfort. It is worthy 
of note that they seem to prefer the male flower-buds to the 
female ; the cast sprays are often to be found in large 
numbers below the crowns of lofty spruce trees. Coniferous 
woods in which squirrels are abundant yield but small 
quantities of seed, for, even when there is a sufficiency of 
female flowers, pollination is very uncertain if the male 
flower-buds be decimated. 



ENEMIES TO WOODLAXDS AND NURSERIES. 63 



The gnawing and ringing of the bark of young saphngs 
and poles is fortunately not a general practice of the 
squirrel, for the damage would otherwise be of no little conse- 
quence in young plantations. Among conifers, larch and 
pine are most exposed to danger ; w^hilst beech, hornbeam, 
aspen, and willow suffer most among the broad-leaved 
species. Young woods of from fifteen to thirty years of age 
are on the whole most liable to this form of danger ; as it 
chiefly takes place during the months of May, June, and 
July, and is more apt to be frequent in dry, hot years like 
the last (1893), there seems every reason to believe that 
the w^ounds are inflicted more for the purpose of obtaining 
supplies of tasty sap than for the satisfaction of actual 
requirements as regards food. The gnawing is usually 
performed in the crown, where the bark is still soft. 
Sometimes, only irregular-shaped patches are gnawed off 
here and there, in w^hich case the crowns may recover ; but 
not infrequently the bark is peeled off all round the shoot, 
or, less frequently, in a very regular screw-like spiral 
between the whorls of the conifers, and in either of these 
latter cases the death of the crown ensues. 

Besides these direct cases of inflicting damage, other 
indirect injuries are also caused by squirrels to woodlands, 
nurseries, and garden 5 — for they cannot be altogether acquitted 
of being carnivorous. They are often guilty of attacking the 
young of very useful species of birds, like starlings, which 
would otherwise help to maintain the due balance of 
nature by waging war against injurious insects. 

The greatest enemy of the squirrel is the tree-marten ; 
but where the latter occurs in large numbers it is apt to 
multiply rapidly, and to become a serious pest, unless its 
prolific tendency is counteracted by the use of the gun.''' 

On theInxrease axd Destrlxtiox of Squirrels.— '•' At Cawdor, Altyre, and else- 
where they have multiplied to a great extent, and have become very injurious to the 
Scotch fir and larch, though chiefly to the former. They are fond of the cones, or rather 
the seeds, of the spruce fir, but have not been known to touch its bark asthev do — most 
destructively— thit of the Scots f.r and larch. It is certainly remarkable that these- 



64 FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURTFUL. 



Voles. 

Voles differ from mice in having a broad, blunt head, 
small ears hidden in fur, short legs, and short tail. 

All the species chiefly spend the day under the ground, 
which they undermine in all directions. As their runs lie 
close below the surface of the soil, they displace the tender 
roots of seedlings in nursery-beds and in young crops that 
are being raised by sowing. Their food being mainly 
vegetables, they do no inconsiderable damage in picking 
seeds out of the soil, in nibbling the stems of small plants 
in nurseries and orchards during winter, and in gnawing 
through roots when making their runs. At the same 
time they do a certain amount of indirect damage by destroy- 
ing young broods of insectivorous birds. 

The gnawing of the bark from the stems of young saplings 
in winter is usually confined to within about a foot of the 
ground, broad-leaved species of trees being attacked in pre- 
ference to conifers ; the wounds inflicted occur generally in 
irregularly shaped patches, although they not infrequently 
extend like a ring round the stem. Owing to the difference 
in the size of the teeth-marks, wounds inflicted by voles can 
easily be distinguished from those made by hares, rabbits, 
and squirrels. 

animals should have disappeared for so long from a district where there must alwa5^s have 
been sufficient wood to shelter them, and where, of late 3^ears, they have been spreading so 
vigorously and extensively. In order to diminish their numbers, and thus in some measure 
save the plantations from their attacks, premiums have been offered. j\Ir. Stables, Lord 
Cawdor's agent, in kindly furnishing me with the following memorandum of the squirrels 
killed on the Cawdor property, tells me that it is only b}^ shooting that their number can 
be reduced. A terrier dog is very useful, as it runs the scent to the trees they have gone up 
and barks very keenly, giving notice to the man in search of them. Note of the number of 
squirrels killed on the Cawdor plantations : — 

In 1862 .. 469 In 1867 .. 1,164 

1863 . . 617 186S . , 1,095 

1864 .. 468 1869 .. 503 

1865 .. 609 1870 .. 867 

1866 .. 779 J 

Mr. Stables remarks that the number killed each year depended a good deal on the 
qualifications of the men employed, and on the price paid for each tail." — From Antinnns 
ontheSpey. — Editor. 



ENEMIES TO WOODLANDS AND NURSERIES. 65 



In 3^ears during which the common field vole {A, agrestis)^ 
the great enemy of the agriculturist, has multiplied 
excessively, the woodlands have to suffer when the swarms 
withdraw from the arable and pasture lands into the forests. 
Here they commence feeding on all the young plants they 
come across, biting through young two to five year-old 
stems close to the ground, and killing older saplings and 
young poles by gnawing off the bark all round at a height 
of about eight to ten inches above the ground. Conifers are 
less exposed to the danger of attack than the broad-leaved 
species, among which beech, ash, hazel, and willow appear to 
be singled out first of all. 

But from a sylvicultural point of view, the greatest amount 
of damage is done by the water-vole and the bank-vole. The 
water-vole {A, amphibia) is rather a misnomer for a species 
of vole which is very often to be found living in the woods 
far away from water. It does a considerable amount of 
injury to nurseries and in young crops by biting through 
roots up to two and even three inches in diameter when 
forming its runs ; these wounds are most serious when they 
are made on the tap-roots of oak or ash. This vole seems to 
prefer poplar, willow, and apple trees to other species, whilst 
beech and conifers escape injury to a great extent. 

The red field vole {A. glareolus) is unfortunately endowed 
with an excellent capacity for climbing. It is to be found 
frequenting the edges of the forest, and in open woods border- 
ing on arable land, rather than in the depths of large blocks 
of woodland, where it singles out for its attacks larch, pine, 
and aspen among the over-wood, and dog-wood and black 
elder principally among the undergrowth. When once they 
commence their work of devastation they continue it very 
assiduously, as they do not wander far from the places where 
once they take up their abode. Towards the end of October 
they commence gnawing off the bark in small patches or 
in strips, and as they continue operations all through the 

F 



66 



FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AMD HURTFLE. 



winter till the end of the following March, the damage 
they contrive to do is very considerable indeed. 

Voles multiply far more rapidly than the true mice. 
The field-vole is the most prolific of all, as about 
75 per cent, of the total number are females. These 
produce from eight to ten young ones every six or eight 
weeks, and as the young begin to breed at an equal rate when 
they have attained an age of eight weeks, the total progeny 
of one female vole may, from ^larch till late in the autumn^ 
amount to about 10,000 ; fortunately for our woodlands, 
the bank-vole and the water-vole are not so prolific. Mild 
winters and dry spring and summer weather favour their 
increase, whilst damp weather, heavy rainfall, and frost 
without snow tend to diminish their prolific power and to 
weaken them constitutionally. 

As they love a certain amount of protection, mice and 
voles are usually to be found where there is a thick soil- 
covering of grass or fallen leaves. Hence young crops and 
plantations showing a strong growth of grass are their 
favourite abodes, partly on account of the actual shelter 
they afford, and partly owing to the food-supplies stored up 
in the roots of the perennial and biennial grasses and weeds. 
When the fall of seeds from trees forming older woods has 
been devoured, the voles withdraw to younger woodlands 
unless there be a good covering of dead foliage on the soil. 
Where mice and voles are at all numerous, it is better to 
defer the operation of sowing in spring rather than carry 
it out in autumn ; this is more particularly the case as 
regards acorns and beech-nuts. The best protection 
against any undue increase in the number of mice 
and voles is to be found in taking measures to main- 
tain the due balance of nature by means of preserving all 
mice-devouring birds and animals, among which are princi- 
pally to be reckoned kestrels, owls, buzzards, crows, moles,, 
hedgehogs, stoats, weasels, martens, badgers, wild cats, and 



ENEMIES TO WOODLANDS AND NURSERIES. 67 

foxes. As, however, these birds and animals of prey also 
attack game, the interests of the farmer, the nurseryman, and 






- -- - - '" '^Z „^ . ., -^s^ 

KESTREL OR ^YINDOVEK. 

the forester here clash with the full indulgence of the land 
lord^s sporting tastes. If these, their natural enemies, are 



68 



FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURTFUL, 



allowed to have a fair chance of life, plagues of voles, such 
as that of 1891-92 in the south of Scotland, are little likely 
to occur. 

Although the badger often commits a good deal of 
havoc in the sowings of acorns and beech-nuts as well 
as in orchards when the fruit is ripening, and though, like 
the hedgehog it is also guilty of sucking the 
eggs of song-birds, and even of pheasants, yet the 
damage they both do is far more than outweighed by their 
useful services. And the same may be urged e\"en 
more strenuously on behalf of the mole to which, 
notwithstanding the annoyance it occasions in gardens, 
nurseries, and meadows by the mounds it throws 
up, we should be very grateful for the useful ser- 
vices it renders in keeping down the numerical increase of 
voles, earthworms, snails, and grubs on which it feeds. 
In fact, it is usually only to be found where such vermin 
abound. Besides being a voracious feeder individually, it 
produces three to five young ones twice a year, in May and 
August. The formation of its nest is on a beautiful plan : it 
consists of two main terraces with numerous exits, so as to 
provide it with easy means of escape when it is pursued 
by enemies like the brown rat. 



CHAPTER VIIl. 



MOLE A-NB HEDQEKOG. 



THE MOLE {Ta/J^a Eiiropcea). 

The question "Is the Mole injurious to the farmer, so often 
asked, is best answered in the negativ^e, with a quahfication 
to the effect that in those districts where the natural enemies 
of the mole have been killed down it will be necessary for 
the occupier of the land to do their work, and, by trapping, 
to keep the numbers of the mole within bounds. 

When a colony of moles becomes firmly established in a 
certam locality, it soon begins to increase, and, as a matter of 
course, the stronger it becomes the more rapid in proportion 
is the increase. The natural enem.ies of the mole are now 
few in number, and consequently sooner or later the 
occupier of land on which such a colony is established has 
to commence a campaign, and spend a certain amount of 
money on traps and head money, until the moles' numbers 
are considerably reduced. Unfortunately, trapping m.oles 
always gives us, sooner or later, a practical illustration of 
the proverb about a multiplicity of cooks. In a little book 
published in 1836 there is a "tailpiece," after the manner 
of Bewick, bearing upon this. An iron gin rat-trap had 
been set upon the floor of a store-room, and a cat had been 
put in likewise; the woodcut shows the cat caught by the 
foot in the trap, while the rats are running about the room 
in safety. When passing a place where a good deal of mole- 
trapping has been done, I am often reminded of this wood- 
cut by seeing a weasel hanging up among the dead moles ; 



70 FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURFFUL. 



on a barn wall on which were nailed the results of several 
years' mole-trapping, I once saw a good many weasels, 
occurring at irregular intervals in the rows of moles. The 
fact is that the weasel is the greatest enemy the mole has, 
and if we had more of them we should not have to do 
nearly so much trapping. The short legs and general shape 
of the weasel enable it to run easily along the moles' 
tunnels, and it is when in pursuit of the inhabitants that it 
sometimes shares the fate of the cat in the picture and gets 
caught in the snare arranged for the reception of its intended 
victim. Some other animals, as, for instance, stoats , and 
some birds of prey, also feed on moles. 

The mole affects the agriculturist in two ways ; first, by 
the food it eats, and, secondly, by the works it carries on to 
obtain that food. As regards the mole in gardens, we may 
dismiss this part of the subject at once^by saying that, what- 
ever good is done there by the mole is more than counter- 
balanced by the trouble, anno\'ance, and damage to plants 
caused bv the tunnels and cuttino-s which an eners^etic mole 
will drive through onion-bed, grass-plot, and flower-border 
alike. Any mole attempting to stake out a claim in a garden 
should be trapped at once, or at least as soon as possible — 
which is often quite another thing. Yet there have been 
town gardens which their owners would gladly have seen 
riddled and furrowed in all directions by moles, so that they 
(the moles) could have just let themselves go among their 
favourite food for a time, and rid the soil from a super- 
abundance of earthworms sufficient to make the garden, 
once a place of pleasure or profit, loathsome and almost 
useless. 

It is unnecessary to enlarge here upon the beneficial 
action of the earthworm [Lujnbi'ictis terristris) upon the 
earth's surface. Practically it forms the whole of that 
valuable vegetable mould (at least that which is spread 
over the surface of hills and slopes) upon which, in 



MOLE AND HEDGEHOG. 



71 



temperate climes, we have to depend for the growth 
of our crops ; — in fact, the worm may, in a sense, be truly 
said to renew the face of the earth. 

Worms also do a vast amount of good by their borings 
through the soil, in loosening it and keeping it open ; 
without them the soil would cake together and become 
hard, dead, and unproductive. It is only necessary to 
remind farmers and gardeners of the increased productive 
ness in soil caused sim.ply and solely by tillage to make this 
point clear. 

Like many other excellent things, however, it is quite 
possible to have too much of the earthworm. But we are 
not (at least in this country) in much danger of this ; for 
such a state of things has been carefully guarded against in 
the scheme of nature. It is wonderful what a number of 
creatures eat earthworms ; birds, beasts, reptiles, and even 
(as we have been lately told) a species of snail feed on 
them ; and it is hardly necessary to add that most kinds of 
fish relish the worm when they can get it. But the earth- 
worm is very prolific, and although in gardens and in 
thickly wooded and enclosed country the surface-feeding 
creatures might be sufficient to keep down their numbers, 
yet in open arable and pasture land, where woodland birds 
are less numerous, and there is less harbour for some of the 
earthworm's four-footed enemies, they would probably prove 
wholly inadequate for the purpose. Here it is that the 
mole comes in. He wants no shelter, for he works under- 
ground, and pushing his runs through the earth attacks the 
worm (literally) in its own ground, where it is safe from 
•surface-feeding creatures. 

Every farmer will have a kindly feeling for an enemy of 
the wire- worm, and in this category the mole is certainly to 
be placed. 

In 1830, Mr. Le Keux, writing with regard to the wire- 
worm in Devonshire, remarks : I think it probable that 



72 FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AXD HURIFUL, 



the mole may prove the best protection against the ravages 
of this insect ; I observed that seven years ago moles were 
very numerous all over the farm, and at that time the wire- 
worm was never found to be injurious to any of the crops ; 
but a war of extermination has ever since been most 
sedulously carried on against the mole, and with such 
success that it has become a rare thing to meet with one 
upon the farm. The wire-worm, on the contrary, is now 
so abundant as to cause very serious and perceptible injury 
by laying bare large patches of the different crops.'' 

i\nother insect which is highly injurious to the roots of 
grass and other crops is the mole cricket. The words which 
Bouche uses with regard to the mole as the chief destroyer 
of this pest summarise very fairly the arguments as to its 
general utilit3\ Rewrites: ''This little quadruped, called 
by Linnaeus, Talpa Europcva, is continually digging in 
pursuit of insect larvce, particularly grubs, mole-crickets, 
and earthwormiS, and destroys them. I have observed that 
a field which contained an endless number of mole-crickets 
or root-worms was freed entirely by the moles in two years. 
They certainly destroy many young plants by burrowing, 
but their usefulness is found to overbalance the mischiel 
they occasion, which is only when the plants are young. 
They likewise retire from those places where they find no 
prey to be caught, when they have freed the field from 
vermin. It is, therefore, not wise entirely to destroy the 
moles.'' 

To consider, secondly, the earthworks of the mole 
What has been said of the good done by the earthworm 
in boring into and loosening the soil is true also of the 
mole. By driving its tunnels in all directions it lets the 
air into the soil, and when, from the effect of rain and 
frost, the sides of the runs cave in, the soil all round is 
moved. The worm brings up the undersoil to the surface 
in the form of castings, which, if they were not kept 



MOLE AND HEDGEHOG. 



73 



spread by the action of rain and frosts, would in time 
cover the herbage ; these castings are really a kind of top- 
dressing. The mole does much the same thing in another 
way. In the course of making its runs it throws up the 
loose soil on to the surface in the form of mole-hills, 
which, when spread over the ground, cannot fail to act 
in some degree as a top-dressing. I have often noticed 
in spring just as the grass was beginning to move, that it 
has sprouted perceptibly earlier and stronger in places 
where some mole-hills had recently been spread, and also 
round the bases of some still standing where a small 
portion of the fine loose soil had slipped down and spread 
out at the foot. It is true that mole-hills have to be spread 
whether we like it or not, because they would if undis- 
turbed, when of any size, become hard and in time covered 
w4th vegetation, and in that state be almost as much a 
nuisance as ant-hills, but the spreading is not usually a 
heavy matter. 

It is not as if the hills were thrown up to the same 
extent at all seasons of the year. On the contrary, the 
chief period of activity on the part of the mole is during 
part of the winter and the spring. It is then that by far 
the greater proportion of the mole-hills are thrown up, and 
if the mounds are spread just before the fields are shut up 
for hay it will be found that few more will appear. 
It may be added that it is just at this season that a little 
fine soil spread over the surface will benefit grass land. 
Chain and brush harrowing, too, at that season make it 
more easy to smooth down the traces of the mole's bene- 
ficial activity. 

In summer the mole works, I believe, to a very large 
extent upon the surface, and the large mounds which it 
erects over its breeding-places are usually situated in 
some out-of-the-way place, such as a hedge-bank or the 
foot of a tree. At that season the mole finds sufficient 



74 



FARM VERML\\ HELPFUL AND HURFFUL, 



cover in the thick bottom grass and procures most 
(probably nearly all) of its food above ground. Anyone 
^yho will go out before sunrise on a summer's morning, 
or take a candle and walk over the lawn on a dewy 
night, will see at once what a feast of large, fat worms, 
the mole finds spread out for him without the trouble 
of moving an inch of earth. It is just because the worms, 
in mild weather at the end of winter and in the early 
spring, come up near the surface of the ground, that the 
moles make such a disturbance with their surface runs and 
hillocks at that season. The main runs leading from the 
mole's abode in a hedge-bank, and those going down to 
some convenient drinking-place, are generally at some little 
depth below the surface. Experienced trappers always look 
out for these runs. 

The foregoing remarks upon the mole's farming operations 
are more especially applicable to grass land. Of its effect 
on arable land it is more difficult to speak. For one thing, 
I think it may safely be said that the mole prefers to work 
in grass fields — it may be because the worm, being there 
undisturbed by man's tillage, and on that account less 
exposed to the attacks of its surface-feeding enemies than 
in those (for instance) which are turned-up once a year in 
sight of the hungry rook or seagull, abounds more under the 
turf ; and, therefore, that such situations afford the mole a 
field of operations in which he can more readily assuage his 
exacting appetite. Be this as it may, the mole can well be 
allowed a free hand until well on into the spring on land in 
preparation for barley ; and perhaps it is only among winter 
wheat, spring corn other than barley, and possibly in clover 
leas that it is likely to do any damage. In fields carrying 
these crops it is certainly sufficiently annoying to see the 
surface runs and hillocks in all directions — plants being 
uprooted by the surface runs or covered up by the hillocks. 
But by the time wheat has been hoed, the mole's great 



MOLE AND HEDGEHOG. 



75 



activity underground will have abated or ceased, and few 
hillocks remain there to face the reaping machine in harvest. 
After all, the test question is — Have we ever seen any portion 
of a white-corn crop showing signs of serious damage by 
moles by the time the plant is in ear ? 

The staple food of the mole consists of earthworms, but 
it will also eat various insects and the large grubs of beetles 
so injurious to the roots of grass ; mice, birds, and reptiles 
are also said to be occasionally devoured by it. Devoured ' ' 
is a better word than "eaten" when speaking of this 
extraordinary animal. The voracity of the mole is, indeed, 
almost past belief. Except during the time when it retires 
to its fortress to sleep, it is unable to live for many successive 
hours without food. I remember once when I was at school 
trying to keep a mole alive (in a biscuit-box filled with 
earth, I believe), and our astonishment at the rate with which 
it consumed worms before us within a few hours of its 
capture. A night passed without food, however, proved 
fatal to it, although I did not at the time realise that it had 
actually died of starvation in less than tw^elve hours. 

Geoffrey St. Hilaire says that the mole (I quote from Bell) 
*' does not exhibit the appetite of hunger as we find it in 
other animals ; it amounts in it to a degree of frenzy. The 
animal, when under its influence, is violently agitated ; it 
throws itself on its prey as if maddened with rage ; its 
gluttony disorders all its faculties, and nothing seems to 
stand in the v\^ay of its intense voracity.'' 

In hard weather, during winter, when frost has driven 
the earthworms deep down into the ground, the mole is said 
to descend in pursuit of them and to carry on its operations 
at a considerable depth. But it seems more probable that at 
such seasons it spends a greater time sleeping in its winter 
fortress (an elaborate system of chamber and galleries formed 
in a large hillock in some secure place) than is generally 
supposed. In light arable land the mole's feeding-runs are 



76 



FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURTFUL, 



often merely trenches along the surface ; and in late winter 
or early spring, when a fall of snow has covered the ground 
to the depth of some inches, it sometimes works just under- 
neath the snoWj leaving only tracks on the ground which 
are exposed when a thaw ensues. 

It may readily be imagined, therefore, what a large amount 
of food the mole must consume ; and it is impossible to 
estimate the effect upon the numbers of the earthworm 
which a total extermination of this animal would produce. 

The mole produces from three to six young, which are 
usually born about April or May ; but young moles may be 
found at any time during the summer, and it is possible 
that two litters are reared in the course of the season. 

When it is necessary to reduce the numbers of the mole 
in any particular locality, the best way is to procure a dozen 
or so of the ordinary iron mole-traps, and set a labourer^ 
who has some knowledge of the habits of these animals, to 
work as molecatcher, paying him so much a head for the 
moles he catches. 

There is, perhaps, no animal about which more divergence 
of opinion exists than the mole. There can be no doubt of 
the beautiful adaption of its structure to its mode of life, 
nor of the ingenuity of its mining operations, and it is worth 
while to consider it for a moment in this aspect before 
viewing its actions from an economic standpoint. 

Its long, cylindrical body is covered with an upright pile 
of fur, which, so to speak, cannot be stroked the wrong way, 
No external ears project from the head to impede it in its 
passage through the earth. 

Our English species {Talpa Eitropcea) is not blind. The 
eyes are very minute and buried in the fur, and keenness of 
vision is assuredly not its strong point. There is a South 
European species {T, ccecd) with eyes still less serviceable, 
for they remain covered by a fold of skin, so that the popular 
idea of the blindness of the miole tribe is not without some 



MOLE AND HEDGEHOG, 



77 



foundation in fact. The senses of hearing and smell are 
acute in the mole, but its subterranean habits afford little 
scope for that of sight, which is but feebly developed. 

The legs are short and powerful. The fore-limbs are 
perfect digging instruments, being highly muscular, fur- 
nished with strong claws, and so set that the palms are 
directed outwards. The snout is long and tapering and the 
mouth is set with sharp teeth, which are well adapted to 
seize and masticate the worms and insects upon which the 
animal feeds. The mole conducts its mining operations on 
a definite plan. The essential parts of the structure are a 
central chamber and two circular galleries, the larger being 
on a level with the nest, and the smaller being some inches 
above it. From the upper gallery three passages lead to the 
nest, while the two galleries communicate by several more 
or less vertical passages. From the basis of these galleries the 
mole tunnels the earth in various directions in search of food. 

During the cold weather the central nest is always found 
to be plentifully stored with food — generally earthworms 
— which the mole has disabled but not killed, and these 
are doubtless for the use of the parent and not of the 
young, which are suckled until able to forage for themselves. 

The misdeeds of the mole are so obvious, and the benefits 
it confers so modestly concealed, that its general popularity 
is little to be wondered at. In the garden it must be 
admitted to be an intolerable nuisance, but on the land it 
is probable that its utter extermination would lead to very 
grave consequences. 

The mole is not only a voracious destroyer of earth- 
worms, but also of many of the larvae which annually do so 
much injury to the roots of the crops. 

THE HEDGEHOG {Ermaceus EuropmLs). 

The hedgehog leads such a retiring life that we seldom 
hear anything about his manners and customs, and few 



78 



FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURTFUL. 



people ever seek his merits to disclose, or draw his 
frailties " from their prickly abode. Yet like most of 
our beasts and birds, he has his faults as well as his 
virtues. Rolled up comfortably at the bottom of some 
dry leaf-filled ditch, or perhaps snugly laid up in moss 
and leaves in a deserted rabbit burrow, the hedgehog passes 
away the winter months in sleep, and even when he comes 
to life again in the spring he is a purely nocturnal or 




THE HEDGEHOG. 



crepuscular animal ; so that, unless he is routed out by 
a dog, or mown out of grass or corn by the mower or 
reaper, we seldom see anything of him except in the long 
summer evenings. Our midsummer nights in the Northern 
hemisphere are so light that night animals have no choice 
there but to show themselves or starve. The hedgehog can 
afford to starve least of all, for he has to lay up a store of 
fat for the ensuing winter's hibernation. So in the dewy 



MOLE AND HEDGEHOG, 



79 



evenings ^YC see him gravely walking over the turf, feeding as 
he goes, or hear him rustle in the green corn, where, no 
doubt, he finds a good supply of succulent insects and grubs. 

He is not, however, always sedate in his movements 
but can bestir himself on some occasions and run with 
considerable activity. I once, rather rashly, passed a night 
in the same room with a hedgehog, gaining some insight 
into his ways at the cost of most of a night's rest. Confined 
at first in a basket, he made such a noise there after the 
candle was put out that I liberated him, and then the game 
began in real earnest. That hedgehog spent the whole of 
the night in running up and down and round and round the 
room at quite a quick pace, varying this amusement with 
endeavours to force himself between the walls and any piece 
of furniture standing close to them. At length, in pushing 
himself behind a big sponge - bath which was tilted 
against the wall, he brought this sonorous object down upon 
him with a crash. A few minutes' quiet ensued, and then 
he wriggled out again to resume his trot. During the 
whole time he kept up a loud snufEng noise, and I subse- 
quently ascertained that a hedgehog, while thus engaged^ 
carries his nose in the air like the proverbial pig in a 
hurricane. 

The usual food of the hedgehog consists of large insects^ 
worms, slugs, and snails, but roots and other vegetable 
substances are also eaten, as also occasionally are mice 
frogs, snakes, and eggs. It is simply in regard to its food 
that the hedgehog affects the agriculturist and horticulturist. 
In the garden it is most beneficial, and upon the farm also, 
it undoubtedly does a great deal of good by devouring 
noxious insects and various smiall vermin. Such, then, are 
its virtues, with the addition that it is said to be very 
good to eat, unreasonable prejudice to the contrary notwith- 
standing. Of its faults, which are few, the gravest is that 
of egg-stealing, and it has been certainly proved that the 



3o FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURTFUL, 



hedgehog will destroy not only the eggs of ground-breeding 
wild birds, but also those of domestic poultry.* By many 
gamekeepers it is accordingly considered as vermin but 
the occasions when the farmer will suffer from raids upon his 
henroosts will probably be few and far between. Isolated 
instances of a hedgehog attacking other things, a leveret 
and a young rook fallen from the nest, for instance, are on 
record ; but a more serious impeachment (ancient as to its 
origin and widely believed in) of sucking a cow during the 
night has, although laughed at by some modern writers, 
been revived of late years from an undoubted case of a 
hedgehog gnawing the udder of a sheep which was thrown " 
in a ditch. 

The hedgehog is never likely to become sufficiently 
numerous to constitute a pest," and systematic trapping 
need never be resorted to. In the case of a particular 
individual paying repeated and objectionable visits, two or 
three ordinary gins set about the place will generally be 
the means of securing the intruder. The traps should, of 
course, be attached by cord to a peg driven into the ground 
or to some fixed object. 

Upon one occasion, finding that the eggs were disappearing from the nest of a wild 
pheasant sitting in the woods, I set a gin to catch the depredator — baiting it with an egg. 
Next morning I found a hedgehog in the trap. Upon another occasion a hedgehog, which 
had been introduced into a vegetable garden as a friendly helper, killed nine chickens 
in a night. In the morning it was found comfortably curled up among its victims. 
Yet another instance of its penchant for flesh. When a schoolboy I, upon one 
•occasion, placed a hedgehog and a stock-dove in the same box overnight. In the morning 
only the hedgehog was there, and " traces "—a parallel incident to that of " The Lady and 
the Tiger.' —Editor. 



CHAPTER IX. 



BATS. 

In the preceding chapters the more important of the 
farmer's friends and foes have been treated of, and it only 
remains for the writer to take up the threads of the subject, 
so to speak, and in the present contribution to notice those 
creatures — small, it may be, but none the less harmful or 
beneficial — which have not yet come under examination. 

Chief among these is the family of bats, and it is pleasant 
to be able to say that the influence they exert is an 
altogether beneficial one. 

The importance of this family will at once be seen when 
it is stated that there are fifteen or sixteen diff"erent species 
found in Britain, and that they are all more or less feeders on 
insects — insects, moreover, which are by no means friends to 
the farmer. We are apt to call a bat a bat, but the fallacy 
of this would be seen at once if only we were to watch more 
closely the flitter-mice " which are constantly flying about 
our homesteads. Of the sixteen indigenous species alluded 
to, all belong to the insectivorous division of the order, and 
are either crepuscular or nocturnal in their habits. Every- 
where about us one may see the admirable precision in the 
ordering of nature ; and in the present case we notice that 
the regular emerging of the Cheiroptera from their winte r 
quarters is contemporaneous with that of the insect hosts 
in spring. 

It is unnecessary here to go elaborately inio the life- 
history of the British bats, and it will be sufficient to 

G- 



82 



FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURTFUL, 



indicate generally that their food is such as to give them a 
place among the farmer's friends. 

The Great Bat [Vesperttgo noctidd) is a tree-loving 
species, and, avoiding buildings, it generally affects hollow 
oaks. Its preference for this special tree need not be won- 
dered at when we remember what a host of insect enemies 
the oak harbours. As a species it is gregarious, and wherever 
a colony is found, there immense numbers of May-chafers 
{MeloIo7iiha vulgaris) are devoured. Here is a testimony 
from Bell of the Great Bat's usefulness The Noctule, in 
general conformation, is essentially adapted for the mastica- 
tion and capture of coleopterous insects. The broad muzzle 




THE COMMON BAT. 

and strong jaws are found quite equal to the reduction of 
the stubborn elytra of beetles as large as the cockchafer (of 
which, according to Kuhl, he will consume as many as 
thirteen, one after the other), and the wings are in no way 
deficient in power when in pursuit of insects. During the fine 
midsummer evenings, when cockchafers are abundant, and 
you hear them humming on every side, the noctule is in his 
glory. Then he flies high and straight, and you hear his 
shrill but clear voice as he passes overhead, interrupting him- 
self only to dart at some prey, and then passing on. But an 



BATS. 



83 



observer will not watch his movements long on such occa- 
sions without noticing a manoeuvre which at first looks like 
the falling of a tumbler pigeon, but on closer observation 
proves to be simply a closing of the wings and a consequent 
drop of about a foot. Sometimes this is repeated every few 
yards as long as in sight. It is occasioned by some large 
and intractable insect having been captured, and the anterior 
joint of the wing, with its well-armed thumb, is required to 
assist in retaining it until masticated." 

To prevent confusion it may be here stated that, although 
Britain seems to have a proportionally large number of 
species of bats, yet some of these, like the Hairy-armed 
(y. Leisleri)^ Serotine (F. serotiniLs)^ and Parti-coloured 
Bat (F". discolor)^ 2ire exceedingly rare. 

Every agriculturist will frequently have noticed the 
Commcn bat (F. pipistrelliLs) hawking for flies ; and 
various dipterous insects, which are its main food, are 
specially injurious to farm crops. It is particularly noticeable 
in the common bat that it spends the twilight hours mainly 
round farm steadings and buildings which house cattle, and 
is thus always near its food-supply. Individuals in confine- 
ment take large numbers of house-flies on the wing, and are 
not averse to small pieces of meat. It is from keeping bats 
in confinement that much of their life-history has been 
learnt — among other facts the interesting one that they 
produce but a single young one at a birth. For a time the 
young one sticks closely to its mother's breast, and, when 
not suckling, is kept carefully tucked up in one of the wing 
folds. 

Whilst several of the rarer bats are extremely local in 
their distribution, it often happens that these exist in con- 
siderable numbers in particular districts. An illustration of 
this may be given in connection with the Mouse-coloured 
bat {Vespertih'o viiinniLs)^ referred to above. This species is 
particularly fond of the nocturnal Lepidoptera, the wing- 



84 FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURTFUL. 



cases and harder portions of which are found in its excre- 
ment. When Buffon visited the famous grotto of Arcy he 
found the ground covered to the extent of several feet with 
what he at first thought to be soil. Upon examination this 
proved to consist mainly of the remains of wings and the 
harder portions of various insects — a mass which had 
doubtless taken years to accumulate. Another instance 
is recorded where one hundred and eighty-five bats 
(mainly V, 7iocttcla) were taken from under the eaves of 
Queen's College, Cambridge, and sixty-three individuals 
upon another occasion. And yet again a singular scene in 
this connection is reported in connection with the discovery 
of a colony of bats of the Reddish-grey species {Vesperh'h'o 
nattereri) in the village church at Arrow — proving the 
social and gregarious habits of the species : — Between the 
ceiling of the chuich and the tiled roof was a dark retreat, 
accessible by a low arch from a floor in the tower. Here the 
bats were seen adhering, by all their extremities, to the 
under surface of the row of tiles which forms the crest or 
ridge of the roof (partly supported, however, by the upper 
tier of roof-tiles on which the ridge-tiles rested), and others 
clinging to them, until a mass was made up three or four 
inches thick, six or seven wide, and about four feet in length. 
It would be wrong to call this their place of repose, as they 
presented a most singular scene of activity, the constant 
endeavour of those outside being to penetrate the mass, 
probably for warmth, and to do this they were continually 
poking their noses between those nearest them, and then 
forcing in their bodies, to be in their turn again pushed to 
the outside. In this way a regular bickering was kept up in 
the whole mass. However, they seemed to be very gentle^ 
and to have no idea of biting or otherwise annoying each 
other/' 

One of our fairly abundant species, Daubenton's bat 
( Ves^ertilio Daubentoiin)^ has for its haunts aquatic situations, 



BATS. 



85 



and takes enormous numbers of gnats and insects found in 
low-lying situations ; whilst the Long-eared bat (Plecotus 
aiLritiiS)^ which is not very common, makes a speciality of 
the Micro-lepidoptera, hovering like a kestrel when in 
pursuit of them.. The Great Horseshoe Bat (R/n'noIopIuis 
ferriLm-equimtvi) devours enormous quantities of chafers. 

From these general observations it will be seen that, 
the food of British bats consists almost wholly of insects, 
and that many of these are among the well-known pests to 
agriculture. 

As in the case of bats, the influence of the Frog [Rana 
temporarm)^ and the Toad [Bufo vulgaris) is altogether on the 
side of the farmer. No insect -is too small nor too large for 
these creatures to appreciate. The quantities of tiny hoppers 
which they destroy is enormous, and no species of worm, 
caterpillar, moth, fly, or grub comes amiss to them. It 
would hardly be practicable to erect toad-houses on a farm, 
but this is often actually done by nurserymen and gardeners 
— and with the very best results. In a greenhouse a toad is 
a m.ost effective scavenger, and its power of destroying black 
beetles is far superior to that of the hedgehog. What 
applies to the toad applies to the frog, and if we knew of the 
immense benefits which the armies of frogs and toads bestow 
on our fields and pastures they would be held in widely 
different esteem to what they are. There is scarcely any 
low form of life found in our fields which the frog does not 
appreciate as food, and his appetite is insatiable. 



THE END. 



LONDON 

WILLIAM EIDER AND SON, LIMITED, PRINTERS, 
14, BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE, E.C 



November^ 1 894. 



LIST OF 

TECHNICAL HANDBOOKS 

AND WORKS RELATING TO 

Timber Calculations, food-Working Machinery, &c., 

Published by 

WILLIAM RIDER AND SON, LIMITED, 
14, Bartholomew Close, London, E.G. 

r;^ All Books sent Post Free at Prices named. 



RIDER'S TECHNICAL SERIES. 

No* I. 112 pp. Illustrated, price 2s. 6d. 

Modern Shafting and Gear- 

ING and the Economical Transmission of 
Power. By M. Powis Bale, A.M.I.C.E., 
author of A Haadbook for Steam Users/^ 

The subject dealt with in this book is a most important one for all 
power users, there being little doubt that a large amount of power is 
unknowingly wasted through improperly and crudely arranged methods 
of transmission. 



No. 2. 54 Illustrations, price 2s. 6d. 

Tree Pruning; a treatise on 

Pruning Forest and Ornamental Trees. 
Translated from the French of the Count 
des Cars, by C. S. Sargent, Professor of 
Arboriculture in Harvard College, U.S.A. 

Many books have, from time to time, been published dealing with the 
Pruning of Trees, but the work by the Count des Cars, of which this is a 
translation, is held in such high esteem by Continental Foresters that it 
has for some years ranked as a standard work. 

No. 3. Price 3s. 6d. 

Practical Forestry • By A. 

D. Webster, Wood Manager to the Duke 
of Bedford, on the Woburn and other 
estates. 

A popular handbook on the rearing and growth of trees for profit or 
ornament. 



RIDER'S TECHNICAL smiS-^^ontmued. 



No. 4. Early next Year, 

Sugar Machinery, By Alex 

J. Wallis Tayler, formerly engineer upon 
Sir Charles Tenant's sugar estates in 
Trinidad. 

A practical work on the construction of machinery for the manufacture 
of Sugar. This is, so far as is known to the publishers, the only work 
dealing with this important industry. 



No. 5. Now ready. Price 2s, 6d, 

Farm Vermin— Helpful and 

HURTFUL. Edited by John Watson, 
F.L.S. 

This handy farmer's guide contains articles by Sir Herbert Maxwell, 
Bart. M.P., John Nisbet, O. V. Aplin, and other well-known authorities 
on the farmer's friends and foes. 



In the Press. 

Talks with Bandsmen. By 

Algernon S. Rose, F.R.G.S. 

This popular handbook for brass instrumentalists will be published very 
shortly. In stiff paper cover, illuminated, crown 8vo, price is. 6d. 



No. 6. Early next Year, 

Modern Wood-working Ma- 

CHINERY. By J. Stafford Ransome, 
A.M.I.C.E. 

The object of this book is to point out to intending purchasers the most 
suitable machines for their purpose, and the qualities to be looked for in 
such machines. 



WILLIAM RIDER & SON, LIMITED, 

Timber Trades yoitrnal Office^ 
14, BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE, LONDON, E.G. 



LIST OF WORKS 

PUBLISHED BY 

WILLIAfl RIDER & SON, Ltd., 

Maacheiter House, 
164, ALDERSQATE ST., LONDON, E.G. 

Paris Office: 68, Boulevard Beaumarshais 
American Office; 89, Chambers Street, New York. 



Crade Journals* 



The Timber Trades Journal and Sawmill Advertiser. 

WEEKLY. 

L'Edition Continentale du Timber Trades Journal, 

(In French) WEEKLY. 

The Piano Journal, 

MONTHLY. 

Cecbnical Series. 

No. I Iklodern Shafting and Gearing 

2. Tree Pruning. 

3 Practical Forestry. 

4. Trees of Commerce. 

5 Farm Vermin — Helpful and Hurtful. 

6 Modern Wood -Working Machinery. 

7 Sugar Machinery 

8. Bearings and Lubrication 

9 Handbook of Sawmill and Wood Converting 
Machinery. 

Cimber Crade, forestrp, $c., 
Publlcaitons. 

Timber and Wood Consuming Trades Lirectory 
Shipping Marks on Deals Battens. &c. 
"Zebra" Telegraph Code. 
Timber Merchants' Vade Mecum. 

Also Various Calculators, Slide Rules, Handbooks &c 

musical Publications. 

Talks with Bandsmen- 
Helpful Papers for Harmony Students. 
The Study of the Orchestra. * 
Fiddle Frauds and How to Detect Them 



RIDER'S TECHNICAL SERIES. 



Crown 8vo., bound in ornamental green 
cloth, gilt. 

Speaking of Rider's Technical Series, the Daily 
Telegraph says : — *' These are really useful handbooks," 

'* They give within reasonable limits and in popular form 
a technical description of various British industries not 
commonly Vnov^n.^'—Star. 



No. 1. 112 pp., Iliustrated, price 2s. 6d. 

Modern Shafting and Gear- 

ING and the Economical Transmission of 
Power. By M. Powis Bale, A.M.I.C.E., 
author of A Handbook for Steam Users," 
etc. 

" The cb-ect cf the aiuhcr :s to draw attention to the amount of power 
tinnecessarily wasted, and discuss practically the most recent practices 
and devices that have been introduced. The little work has the advantage 
of being that of a practical and skilled engineer, and of being based on 
actual expen'ence ro less than on theoretical knowledge." — Glasgo-v 
Herald, 



No. 2. 64 pp., 54 Illustrations, price 2s. 6d. 

Tree Pruning: a Treatise on 

Pruning Forest and Ornamental Trees. 
Translated from the French of the Count 
des Cars, by C. S. Sargent, Professor of 
Arboriculture in Harvard College, U.S.A. 

" Tree Pruning.' translated from the French by Professor Sargent- 
of Har\'ard College, U.S.A., is a concise and reliable guide to this par- 
ticular branch of woodcraft. It gives in a small compass a considerable 
arrjount of u-eful information." — Morning Post. 



WILLIAM RIDER & SON, LIMITED, 

rimher Trades Journal Oflice, 
164 ALDERSG.ATE STREET, LONDON, E.G. 



RIDER'S TECHNICAL SEmS-contmued. 



No. 8. Price 3s. 6d. 

Practical Forestry. By 

A. D. Webster, late Wood Manager to the 
Duke of Bedford, on the Woburn and other 
estates. A popular handbook on the rear- 
ing and growth of trees for profit or 
ornament. 

' We predict that in a very short time, few, if anry at all, practical 
•. rasters will be found who have not added ' Practical Forestry,' to the 
«i elves of their libraries . . . Having perused it with pleasure 
and profit, we cordially recommend the work to all who are desirous of 
obtaining a knowledge of tree management as managed by our leading 
arboriculturists." — PeriJishire Constitutional. 



No. 4. Second Edition, 226 pp., price 3s. 6d, 

The Trees of Commerce. By 

W. Stevenson. A Practical Manual, giving 
within reasonable limits, and in a popular 
form, an account of the trees that yield the 
staple of the British Timber Trade, with the 
uses to which they are applied. 

" Gives within reasonable limits and in a popular style, an account of 
the trees that yield the staple of that important branch of British com- 
merce, the trade in home-grown and imported timber." Contract 
Journal. 



No. 5. Illustrated, 86 pp., price 2s. 6d. 

Farm Vermin— Helpful and 

HURTFUL. Edited by John Watson, 
F.L.S. 

"This unassuming little book, beneath a modest exterior, contains a 
iund of practical instruction to farmers and landed proprietors, whicA 
should go some way to help in the discrimination between what vermin 
are really harmful to their combined interests— a somewhat narrower 
range than is popularly supposed— and what should be encouraged." 
Rod and Gun. 



WILLIAM RIDER & SON, LIMITED, 

Timber Trades Journal Office, 
164, ALDERSGATE STREET, LONDON, E.G. 



RIDER'S TECHNICAL SimS-contimced. 



No. 6. Illustrated, 236 pp., price 3s. 6d. 

Modern Wood=working Ma- 

CHIXERY. By J. Stafford Raxsome, 
Assoc. Mem. Inst. C.E., Author of " Modern 
Labour," ''Capital at Bay,'' etc. 

•• Mr, Ransome's book bears the impress throughout of a writer who 
kr>ows his subject . . . The author's style is easy, and we arrive 
at the point quite pleasantly. This is what the man. reading for in- 
struction, likes/' — Engineering. 



No 7. Illustrated, 314 pp., pr'ce 5s. 

Sugar Machinery. A Des- 

criptive treatise devoied to the machinery 
and apparatus used in the manufacture of 
Cane and Beet Sugars. By A. J. Wallis- 
Tayler, C.E., Assoc. M. Inst. C.E., formerly 
engineer upon Sir Charles Tennant's sugar 
estates in Trinidad. 

The sugar industry is of vast extent, and the low prices- 
prevailing render it imperative to employ only such 
machines, apparatus, and appliances as will give the best 
results and the greatest possible re:urns. The descrip- 
tion and illustrations of machinery and apparatus in this 
volume have therefore been selected from representative 
types of each class of machines of the most advanced and 
improved designs. 

■'■ The book is a descrijitive treatise devoted to the machinery and 
apparatus used in the manufacture of cane and beet sugars. . 
A very good outline is given of the process, not only in its mechanical, 
but a ?o on its chemical and physical sides, and concentrates into a 
comparatively small space the results of what has evidently been an 
extensive experience on the part of the author. For the benefit of those 
in charge of sugar factories, the subject of repairs, which is one of no 
small importance has been gone into, and to this have been added 
notes on lubrication, and certain tables and memoranda as beins of 
utility for reference "—J he Ir.diav, EasUrn Engineer. 



WILLIAM RIDER & SON, LIMITED. 

7':rnber Trade' jurnal Office^ 
T6d. ALDERSGATE STREET, LONDON, E.C 



5 

RIDER'S TECHNICAL smiS-^ontmued. 



No. 8. Fully Illustrated, price 33. 6d. 

Bearings and Lubrication. 

A Handbook for every User of ?vlachinery. 
By A. J. AVallis-Tayler, C.E., Assoc. 
^Member Inst. C.E. 

The aim of the writer has not been to produce a 
theoretical treatise upon the subject, but to collect and 
impart, in a concise manner, such practical imformation 
as may assi-t tlie users of machinery in making a choice 
of proper bearings for different duties, and of the kinds 
of lubricants required, as well as of the best methods of 
applying them ; thus enabling an intehi^tnt check to be 
held over this fruitful and constant source of loss. 



No. 9. Price 2s. 6d. 

Handbook of Saw=Mill and 

WOOD COXYERTIXG MACHTXEBY 
with notes on constniction, speed, etc. 
By M. Po^TIS Bale, M.T.M.E., A M.LC.E^ 
Author of "Modern Shafting and Gearing," 
Saw-Mills," etc. 

The author, who, in the course of his business, 
is frequently applied to for advice on pomts relative 
to the m^jdes of construction, speed, and conditions 
of working of saw-mill and wood-working ma- 
chinery, has made this treatise as a compendium 
so far as practicable within the limits of a mod- 
erate sized volume, of the information required. 



WILLIAM RIDER & SON. LIMITED, 

Tim^'er Tradsi- Journal Office^ 
164, ALDERSGATE STREET, L0NL.0N, EC 



6 



Demy 8vo, Illustrated, cloth gilt, 5s. 
SECOND AND ENLARGED EDITION OF 

Webster's Practical Forestry. 

The third Edition of Webster's Practical 
Forestry has been extensively enlarged and 
revised by the author, Mr. Angus D. 
Webster, and is offered to the public 
tastefully bound in an ornamentally 
designed cloth cover, price 5s. With the 
exception of one or two highly-priced 
books, this is the only standard work 
dealing with the subject. Numerous illus- 
trations have been added in the new 
edition, which it is hoped will give material 
assistance in explaining the various opera- 
tions treated of in the next. Several fresh 
chapters have also been incorporated in the 
book, which now contains practical infor- 
mation on the following, among other 
subjects : — 

The' Home Nursery, its Formation and Management — The Collecting 
and Harvesting of Seeds — The Propagating of Trees and Shrubs — The 
Laying Out oi Plantations— The Kind of Trees Suited to Various Soil 
and Conditions — The Planting of Large Towns, Seaside and Exposed 
Positions— Hedgerow and Field Planting— The Formation and Manage- 
ment of Game Coverts— Ornamental Planting— Osier Culture- 
Thinning Plantations— Tree Pruning— Barking Oak— Manufacture of 
Charcoal— Utilization of Waste Forest Produce— Formation of Hedges 
and Fences— Timber Measuring— Diseases of Forest Trees, etc., etc. 



WfLLIAM RIDER & SON, LIMITED, 

Timber Trades Journal Office, 
164, ALDERSGATE STREET, LONDON, EC 



7 



WORKS RELATiNS TO TIMBER CALCULATIONS, 
WOOD WORKING MACHINERY, ETC. 



l6c pp., crown 8vo, oblong, limp cloth, gilt, price 6s.) 
or bound in strong leather, 7s. 6d. 

Shipping Marks on Deals, 

BATTENS, BOARDS, TIMBER, 
JOINERY, and other Wood Goods, 
exported from Sweden, Norway, Finland, 
Russia, and Germany, with the English and 
French classifications ; also list of English 
and Continental agents for the various 
stocks. 

Thii t)ook contains upwards of 2,000 marks. It is 
corrected up to the latest date by Agents, Shippers, 
and others, and is as complete as possible. The 
arrangement is alphabetical throughout. 

Charts of the Shipping Distrircs on the east coast 
of Sweden from Haparanda to Gefle are given, on 
which are shown the exact position of the sub-loadings 
places, also charts of the Baltic Sea, Finland, and 
Norway, indicating ihe position of the timber ports. 

The Swedish portion is arranged under shipping' 
districts, and the Norwegian, Finnish, and Russian 
sections under the ports of shipment. 

A complete alphabetical list of the marks is given 
in a second arrangement, and the figures which 
appear in the second column of this arrangement 
indicate the pages in the first portion on which 
the shipper's name, port of shipment, and other 
information relating to each particular mark will be 
found. The assortment for the Continental as well 
as the English Market is given for each stock when 
there is any variation. 



W LLIAM RIDER & SON, LIMITED, 

Timber Trades Journal Office^ 
164, ALDERSGATE STREET, LONDON, E.G. 



8 



126 pp., strongly Vound in leather, price los. 6d. ; copies 
in extra calf binding, flexible covers and round corners 
for the pocket, 15s. 

THE TIMBER TRADES JOURNAL 

Zebra " Telegraph Code 

has been adopted by all the leading Timber 
Agents, Shippers, and Importers, and is 
recognised as the Timber Trade Code. 

The following are the chief headings of the classifications 
of the Code : — 

Deal, Batten and Board Specifications. 

Ditto, Extra Sizes. Flooring Specifications. 

Specifications for Sundries. Timber and Balks, &Co- 

Oak. Staves. Lathwood. Firewood and Ends. 

Sleeper Blocks and Sleepers. 

English and French Moneys. 

Dates. Percentages. Average Lengths. 

Delivery and Shipment. Terms of Payment. 

Drafts, Remittances, Advances, &c. 

Telegrams and Letters. Offers, Inquiries, &c.. 

Answers to Offers, Inquiries, &c. 

Chartering, Advice of Vessels Arriving, &c. 
A list of the firms using the " Zebra " Code can be had; 
post free, on application to the publishers. Additions and' 
corrections of address of users are published from time tc 
time in the Timber Trades Journal^ and a com-^lete list i& 
published annually. 

The Telegraph Code adopted by the Timber Trade at home- 
and abroad. 



Price IS. 6d., in large type, varnished, mounted on canvas 
and rollers, for suspension in the office. 

The Standard Calculator. 

Showing the shortest methods of reducing 
Scantlings of various sizes, from 2x4 ta 
4X 12, to the Petersburg Standard. With 
examples of workings, etc., etc. 



WILLIAM RIDER & SON, LIMITED, 

Timber Trades Journal Office^ 
164, ALDERSGATE STREET, LONDON, E.C. 



9 



Demy 8vo, cloth gilt, price 3s. 6d, 

St. Petersburg Standard Cal= 

CULATOR, The. By W. D. PoaL. 

This book, as its title implies, deals especially 
with the abstruse calculations natural to the St. 
Petersburg Standard, and will be found the most 
concise, reliable, and comprehensive handbook on the 
subject yet published. 

Abridged Contents. 

What a Petersburg Standard Contains. 

Prices of all sizes of battens and deals, per lineal foot, with the 
corresponding price per Petersburg Standard. 

Price per cubic foot, per 'oad, and per Petersburg Standard. 

Prices per 120 pieces 12 ft deals and battens, and the corresponding 
prices per Petersburg Standard. 

Prices per square, per standard, of imported prepared flooring boards. 

Estimated weight of wood goods 

Relative values of Quebec and Petersburg Standards. 
Christiania, Drammen, and other Standards. 

IMode of calculating Round Timber by *' String Measure," &c . &c 



LIVERPOOL MEASURE. 

Price i2s.^ per copy nett, bound in half leather hand-made 
paper, or in cloth, gs. per copy. 

Aitken's Timber Measurer. 

Has long been the standard work, the tables giving the 
feet of 1 in in a Liverpool log as well as the contents of sawing, 
without calculations. 



Log Sawing Guide for the Tim- 

BERTRADE PRICE 30s., CARRIAGE PAID. Containing 38 large 
•sized Tables, showing the best possible manner of sawing any given sized 
log; also Plates and Diagrams for the control of different sawing 
methods, and much other useful information indispensable for everyone 
connected with the Timber Trade. By the late GUSTAF 5IEMSSEM, 
of Helsingfors, Finland. 



23rd Thousand, price 4d., post free. 

Timber Mercliant's Pocket 

Companion. 

Price per Standard at per Foot Run of usual Sizes of Deals and 
Battens, also the price per Foot Cube per Standard. 

WILLIAM RIDFR & SON, LIMITED. 

Timber Fracics Journal Ojfice , 
264, ALDEKSG\TE STREET. LONDON, EC. 



10 



Fifth Edition, Revised and Enlarged. 120 pp., price 4s. 

Timber Merchant and Buil- 

DER'S VADE MECUM, The. By Georgs 

BOUSFIELD. 

^ Ccn:pri-:"2: citFersnc Table; :zj :[:^ :2< all the varied 
Svsr^-is cf Measurement ar.c value :;' ^:;v.:ir. Deals. Floorir.?, 
Ice. ^ ' ~ 

1 h:rty-five valuable Rules and examples for working every 
cor:elvatle Method of Ti'-"-- Cal-ulation. ^:c. 

S:x:y-:hree useful Pr:' " : z' v z points of difficult 

c;mp^:a:i:u experieuce ^ _ : e 

Treatise cu Patent Slice x\U-e, full directions and examples- 
for workins: it. 

Treatise on Timber, embracing every description of Foreign 

and H:n:c.cr:v. ". iu crcinary use, and how to detect inferiorit y 

Treaii-e :r. R : rV, S:a:r5, Doors and Frames, and all classes 
ofMoulcing.anu r>re-.c\V:;d, 

Specin.e: - :f Mculc'luss an:, the l e ; ..meal Terms for ditto. 

Table :: Trc:u::a Terrus anc 1; ' ':':n?. besides a host of 
other useful an f. n-.isceVane: us in '. ; eculiarlj- adapted 

to the re„ui.-cu:eu> :f lI:- Trace. 



Price, with Book of Instruction. 21s. 

''Vade Mecum" Slide Rule. 

Designed expressly for the Timber Trade, hy 
George Bousfield. author of the Timber 
Merchant and Builder's \^ade Mecum.'' 

TIMBER MERCHANTS' 

Pocket Stock Books, speci- 

ally ruled. loc Pages, Leather Case, 2 
Pockets and Pencil, 2s. complete. Books 
only, IS. each ; iis. per dozen. 

Frice, is. each : 105. ler dozen. 

Valuation Books for Home 

Timber Merchants. Pocket books with 
columns for length, girth, contents, price, 



WILLIAM RIDER & SON. LIMITED 

Timber T?'ades Jouma. Office ^ 
164, ALDER5GATE STREET, LONDON. EC 



11 



In l^mp cloth, 3-in hv 4-in., for the waistcoat Pocket. 
Price Sixpence. 
THE TIMBER TRADES JOURNAL 

Pocket Calculator. 

Price per lineal foot i All sizes, from 4" x 2" lo 

., standard ' 4" x 12"; also number 

, , cube I. of running feet in stan- 

ton, 66-ft. / dard. 

Running feet to Cube, Load, and Standard of all sizes. 
Price per Standard to running feet and cube from ^4 los. to £jq ics 
Comparative price per Cube, Standard, and Load and Ton 
Comparative price per standard and per yard of Flooring. 
Railway carriage comparison per ton. per cube and per lineal toot. 

On Card, price 6d. 

Tip Measurer's Mental Rec= 

KONER. 

So simply arranged for each size that the contents of a tree 
ma}^ be mentally computed as it is measured. 

FOR TRAVELLERS. PRICE Is. Just fits the Wallet. 

The Petersburg Standard 

READY RECKONER OF PRICES AND SIZES. 
For Buyers and Sellers of Timber. 
CONTENTS — Running Feet in a Standard— Relative Prices per 
Square and per Standard — Relative Prices per Square Yard and per 
Standard — Relative Prices per Foot Run and per Standard — Relative 
Prices per 100 Feet Run and per Standard for Mouldings— or _ Tile 
Laths — Relative Prices per 100 Feet Run and per Standard for Skirting — 
Relative Prices per Cube Foot, per Standard, and load of 50 C. Feet — 
Relative Prices per Cubic and Superficial Foot — Table for Calculating 
the "^Veight of Sawn and Unsawn Leals — Table for Calculating the Con- 
tents of Kound or Square Timber — Square Feet in a Standard — Squares 
in a Standard — Square Yards in a Standard — Running Feet in a Square 
— Running Feet in aSquare Yard — Running Feet in a Square (Laid). 

FOR CHECKING CARGO INVOICES. 

52pp., 4to Cloth limp. Price 4/-, post free. 

Practical Tables for the 

REDUCTION OF PIECES TO RUXNING FEET. 

By Iv. Iverus and J. A. K. Saren. 

A ready reckoner; giving at a glai ce the number of running feet in 
any number of pieces from i to i.ooo. 

Also the number of running feet in thousands of pieces, from 1,000 
to 30,000, in lengths from 6-ft up to 30-ft. 

WILLIAM RIDER & SON, LIMITED 

Timber Trades Journal Office, 
i6^, ALDERSGATE STREET, LONDON. E.G. 



12 



Inttrnational Timber Trade Directory 
Demy 8vo, 7s. 6d. 

Timber Trades Directory. 

Classified Lists of the firms in England, 
Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, engaged in 
the Timber and Principal Wood Con- 
suming Trades. Also comprehensive lists 
of the Shippers in the Timber Producing 
Countries, and the principal firms engaged in 
the Import and Export Timber Trade all over 

the World. 

One Shilling. 

Scribner's Lumber & Log Book. 

Give'^ measurements of all knid^ ( f L imbcr-Logs, 
Planks, Timber ; hints to lumber dealers ; Wood Measure; 
Speed of Circular Saws ; Care of Saws ; Cord Wood 
Tables; Felling Tree?, Growth of Trees ; Land Measure; 
Wages, Rent, Board, Interest, Stave and Heading Bolts, 
&c. 

Standard book throughout United States and Canada. 

SPECIALLY PREPARED FOR THE TIMBER 
TRADE. 

Price 7s. 6d., varnished, mounted on canvas and rollers ; 
on paper, 2s. 6d. 

Map of the North of Europe 

TIMBER PORTS and the SWEDISH 
SHIPPING DISTRICTS. 

Size 2 ft. by 2 ft. 6 in., Fully Coloured. 

This map will be found very useful for reference, and 
it is very ornamental, and should find a place on the walls 
of every Timber Merchant's Office. 

A complete Ready Reckoner for all branches of 
the Timber Trade. Price 2s. 6d. 

The Timber Merchant's and 

BUILDER AND CONTRACTOR'S CAL- 
CULATOR. By John Robert Barker. 

WILLIAM RIDER & SON, LIMITED, 

Timber Trades Journal Office, 
164, ALDERSGATE STREET, LONDON EC 



13 



On Card, price 6d. 

Deal and Flooring Calculator. 

Price per Standard, per Foot Cube, and per Lineal 
Foot ; also Table for Calculating Railway Rates, &c. 

In Flexible Leather Cover for Pocket, 6d. each. 

Equivalent Prices at Foot 

Run per Standard, and other Tables. By 
J. Boys & Son, Walsall. _______ 

On Card or Paper, price 6d. 

Roofing Slate Ready Reck= 

ONER. 

Showing comparative cost of Roofing Slates per 
1,200, per 1,000, and per s ^uare, allowing 3 in. for lap. 

On Card, price 6d, 

Per Foot Run per Standard. 

Equivalent Prices of all Sizes of Deals and Battens, at per 
foot run and cube to St. Petersburg Standard. By W. 
Bryan. 



On Card, price 6d. 

Reducing Running to Cubic 

FEET. 

This table gives a simple rule for readily ascertaining the 
number of cubic feet in any given number of running feet, 
of any ordinary dimension from 4 x i to 4 X 11. 

On Card, price 6d., post free. 

String and Calliper Measure 

of Round and Hewn, or 8-sided Timber, 
explained and compared. By J. W. Bixby. 

WILLIAM RIDER & SON, LIMITED 

Timber Trades Journal Office, 
164. ALDERSGATE STREET. LONDON. E.G. 



Demy Svc'.. b'~unc ::: l::^:r c^Mh P'^st free, r^ice is. 

The Anglo=French Calculator, 

Specially prepared for the Timber Trade. 
The principal c : tc: 5 : : e ; 

Money : P ur-r.^. gs and Pence to Francs, etc. 

Lineal Measure : Yards. Feet, and Inches into 
Metres, etc. 

Square Measure : S:. r.?.rr Yards, Feet, and Inches- 

into Square Metre-, etc, 
Cn'-ic Measure : C::r:c Yards. Feet, and Inches 

into Cur:: ^rctres etc. 
St. Petersburg Standards into Cubic Metres. 
Weights : Avoirdupois and Troy into Grammes 

and Kilograms 
L'quid Measure : Gills, Pints, Gallons, Quarts inta 

Litres, etc. 

Thermometer : Comparison of Fahrenheit. Centi- 
grade, and Reaum.nr. 
In each ca^e the tables are given in both English & French. 

The Standard Moulding 

BOOK. (With Mejchajifs Name oji Cover.) 
Containing Prices and Sections of Mouldings, 
Skirtmcs, Sash Bars, Beads, S:ishe^, Frames, 
Corr:ce = , Riders. Trcdis. Handrad., D::r5, Balus- 
ters, Xcv.-^'s, Table Legs, etc., etc. 

Idr^:rar ::s give the true size cf each moulding, 
and the r.rrrdrers are those adopted by the Trade. 

Per I, ceo Xio 5 

Per 5C0 6 o 

Per 250 3 10 

S^tciniiK Ccf\ fcs: frcz on af plication. 

Price 15. 

Equation Tables. By K. C. 

Richardson. 

Shcr: meth'rds for reducing Standard Hundreds 
to Running Feet. Relative prices per Foot per 
Standard. Price per 120 pieces 12 ft. 1-ng of various 
sizes at price per Star.dard, per fr. Cube, and per 
Load. Cost of Flaoring per Square and per 
Standard. 



WILLIAM RIDER & SON, LIMITED, 

Timber Tra'^es jTury^al Office ^ 
164 AT.DERSGATE STREET, LONDON' E.C, 



15 



THE STANDARD BOOK. 
Xew Edition. Enla?-ged and Revised, 23 

Hoppus' iUeasurtr, showing 

at sight the Solid or Superficial Contents (and 
Value) of any Piece or Quantity* of Square or 
Round Timber, either standing or felled : also 
of Stone. Board, Glass, etc.. etc. 



Large cro^vn Sv:. zz., v.::h r.un-.er:u5 Il^jstra:::-?, 



Saw Mills— Their Arrange= 

MENT AND MANAGEMENT, and the 
Economical C rovers:::: :: Timber. By M. 
Powis Bale, C.E., M.I.M.E. 

Timber Trade Miscellanea ^ — Wrrds and their 
uses — List of Woods ;:r.v:r. :rOy used in Grea: Britain 
—London Price Listdi: :-3.\v:n^ — Tin^ber and Saw- 
miii trade technical terms, .ice. 

Wood=working Alachinery : 

Its Rise, Progress, aod Coos:ru::i:'0. With 
Hints on the Manage:nen: c: Saw-moiils. and 
the Economical Conversion of Timber.. 
Illustra:ed vrith Examples of Recent Designs 
bv leading English. French, and Am.erican 
Engineers. By M. Po^yis Bale. C.E., 
M.LM.E. 



12 ft. icng. IS. dd,; ic f:., is. 3d.: S f:., is. earn. 

Watkins' Patent 

Girthing Tapes, showing the 

Cubical Contents of one foot on the back 
of the Tape behind each figure. 

WILLIAM RIDER & SON, LIMITED. 

T:m:-c''- Trails [^uf^na' Of.::. 
if^ ALDERSGATE street. LONDON, EC 



16 



Works by E. A. P. Burt, 

CHIEF MEASURER, 

SURREY COMMERCIAL DOCKS. 

Third and Cheap Edition^ v:ith new additions added. 

C!rowii svo.. 320 pp.. Clotli G-ilt, with numerous Diagrams. 
Price 4 s. 

The Railway Rates Standard Timber 
Measurer and Calculator. 

Adopted by all the Railway Companies, Dock Companies, and 
the Timber Trade since 1S8S, and recognised by all in the 
Kingdom as the Standard Work. 

The Standard Cubing Slide Rule, with 
Measuring Plank Rule. 

Complete. 23s. 6d. per set. 

Demy 8vo. , 150 pp. 
Price. Cloth G-ilt. -is. : Strong- Leather Binding, 5s. 

The Standard Stave Measurer and 
Calculator. 

Demy 8vo.. 150 pp. Cloth G-ilt, price, Is., post free. 
The Standard English and Foreign 
Corn Calculator. 

liO pp. Price 2s. 6d., Limp Cloth. 

Burt's Railway Rates Timber Tables. 

Price 10s. 6d., Brass Slide; Ivory Slide, 12s. 6d. 
Burt's Improved Sliding Rule for Cubing 
Round Timber, etc. 

Price 2s. 6d. 
Guide to Round Timber Cubing Rule. 

Price 1 s. 

Round Timber Measurement-Weight 
Tables for Railway Rates. 



WILLIAM RIDER & SON, LIMITED, 

Timder Trades Journal Office^ 
164, ALDERSGATE STREET, LOXDOX, EC 



MUSICAL PUBLICATIONS. 

400 pp., crown, paper covers, 2s. 6d. ; cloth, 33. 6d. 
Profusely illustrated. 

Talks with Bandsmen. By 

Algernon S. Rose, F.R.G.S. 

This book has been written to meet a widely- 
expressed want, more especially in the ^Midlands and 
North of Eneland, where no work containing those- 
facts which every bandsman desires to know can be- 
obtained at a popular price. " T.iiks with Bandsmen 
gives the history of the evolution or metal instruments 
from the most primitive times to the present day. 

133 pp., price Is. 6d. 

Helpful Papers for Harmony 

STUDENTS. By Henry C. Banister,, 
Professor of Harmony and Composition at 
the Royal Academy of Music, the Guildhall 
School of Music, and the Royal Normal 
College and Academy of Music for the Blind. 

Price 6d., paper covers. 

Fiddle Frauds and How to 

DETECT THEM. By William Wolff. 



Fcap. 8vo, 132 pp., price is. 6d. 

The Study of the Orchestra. 

An Essay on the practical treatment and 
combination of Orchestral Instruments. 
By J. Hamilton Clarke, Mus. Bac, Oxon.^. 
F.R.C.O. 

Whilst advice is given to young students as to the best 
and readiest means of apprehending the nature and quality 
of each instrument, care has been taken as far as possible to 
AVoid all unnecessary detail. It is illustrated by numerous 
thematic quotations. Considering the high repu'.ation 
enjoyed by the author as an authority on orchestral 
matters, all students will do well to possess themselves of- 
this little work. 



WILLIAM RIDER & SON, LIMITED^ 

Timber Trades Journal Office^ 
164. ALDERSGATE STREET, LONDON, E.G. 



U Edition Gontinenta/e 

DU 

TIMBER TRADES JOURNAL. 

(WEEKLY. IN FRENCH J 

Annual Subscription— (Great Britain) lOs^ 
(Abroad) 12s. 6cl. ; or The Timber Trades 
Journal and the Continental Edition 
posted together (Great Britain) £1 5s., 
(Abroad) £1 10s. 



This publication (in French) presents a weekly 
review of the Wood Trade in the principal 
markets of France, Belgium, Holland, Spain, 
Portugal, Germany, Denmark, Austria, etc., etc., 
and has the largest circulation of any timber trade 
paper on the Continent of Europe. 



PUBLISHED BY 

WILLIAM RIDER & SON, LIMITED, 
Manchester House, 164, Aldersgate Street, 
London, E.G. 



Pafis Office:- 68, Boulevard Beaumarchais. 
American Office: 89 Chambers Street, New York. 



J40NTHLY, FBICE ^iXFENCE. VE.U^.LY SUBSCRIPTION, FFVE SHILLINGS. 



THE 

PIANO JOURNAL 

A Monthly Newspaper for Makers and Dealers. 

Circuia'ir.g am-'mgst Dealers in and Manufacturers of 

PIANOFORTES, ORGANS,, HARMONIUMS, 
AMERICAN ORGANS, BRASS, STRING, AND 
OTHER INSTRUMENTS, 

And the Music and Allied Trades generally, in 

lONCON, THE PROVINCES, IhDIA, AUSTRALASIA, CHINA, 
CANADA, ETC. 

This journal has attained a thorough y recognised 
position as the Leiding Mus'c Trade Puo i,;^/on, and has 
the largest guaranteed circulation of any paper entirely 
devoted to the Music Trade. 

It is therefore valuable in the highest degree as a medinm 
for the introduction of regular goods, and all novelties, 
inventions, and improvements, to the whole of the Retail, 
Wholesale, and Export Trade throughout the Kingdom, the 
Continent, and the Colonies. 



LONDON : 

WILLIAM RIDER & SOX. LIMITED, 
Manchester: House, 164, Aldersgate Street. E.C. 



Paeis Office : 68. Boulevard Beaumarchais. 
A?4er:can Office: Sg, CHA?vfBERS Street, New York. 



Established 1873. 
Weeklij, Price Fourpence. Annual Subscription 
Inland, Us. 6d. Foreign, 21s., post free, 
THE 

TIMBER TRADES JOURNAL 

AND SAW MILL ADVERTISER. 

An independent newspaper for Foreign^ Coloniah 
and English Timber Mercliants, and the IVIahogany 
and Hardwood Trades. 

This Journal has achieved a high position amongst class 
papers, and is read wherever timber is bought or sold the 
world over. 

Its Trade Reports, from all the principal centres of the 
trade at home, are compiled by specially-appointed resident 
correspondents, whose truthful and accurate reports present 
each week a reflex of the present state and future outlook of 
the trade. 

The Foreign Correspondence from the timber-producing 
countries is greatly appreciated, and, by keeping buyers on 
this side well posted as to the movements of the supply 
markets and the intentions of shippers, trade is steadied, and 
the fluctuations in prices become less sudden and dangerous. 
A leadinsj feature of The Journal is its reports on the Public 
Auction Sales in London, and at the out-ports ; and the price 
and buyer's n:ime is recorded of every lot which is sold. 
Articles on the course of trade, and all topics of the day 
connected directly or indirectly with the Timber Trade, are 
written by practical writers. Extracts from the London 
Gazette of all Bankruptcies, etc., and Reports of Meetings of 
Creditors, with Lists of Creditors and amounts due, are given 
of the largest failures. A brief summary is given of the cargo 
of every timber-laden ship arriving in each port of the United 
Kingdom, with the port ot shipment and consignee. 

Besides the above leading features, the Timber Trades 
Journal contains all the trade information which might be 
expected of a high-class trade paper, and is always to the fore 
in advocating and upholding the interests of the Timber 
Trade in every way possible. 



PUBLISHED BY 

WILLIAM RiDER & SON, LIMITED, 

Manchester House, 164, Alders ^ate Street, 
London, E.C. 



Paris Cffige ; 68. 
American Office : 



Boulevard Beaumakchais. 
89, Chambers Street, New York. 



DEC SB mi 



